Carmichael Woman Lost Money in Loan Mortgage Scheme

Arrest warrants were issued Wednesday for three men accused of preying on more than a dozen vulnerable borrowers facing foreclosure or unaffordable mortgage payments, including those in Carmichael and Fair Oaks.

From November 2009 to about June 2010, the Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office says the loan modification business run by Ashik Azeez, 49, Frank Joseph Ferris, 69, and Vicente Jose Perez, 49, all of Sacramento, performed unlicensed loan modification activities, improperly collected advance service fees, and failed to notify clients that paying a loan modification through a third party was unnecessary.

Last March, a warrant request filed by Supervising Deputy District Attorney Michael Blazina says Joan Stovall met with Ferris and Azeez for a loan modification on two properties she owned in Carmichael. Years before, Ferris was Stovall’s attorney in a family dispute over a trust. Stovall received a $50,000 judgment, but allowed Ferris to keep the money in his client trust account, with the understanding Ferris would write her checks as needed.

Blazina writes that when Stovall fell behind on her house payments, Ferris suggested she obtain a loan modification through his company and that he would pay the $1,500 fee from his client trust account. Azeez later told Stovall that payment never happened, prompting her to pay at least $350 out of pocket for the in-process loan modification.

Around the same time, a Fair Oaks property owner was allegedly asked by Perez to lie on her loan application during a loan modification process for which she was quoted a $2,500 fee.

The warrant request outlined 16 separate instances in which people were charged upfront for loan modification costs or otherwise swindled, including many that occurred after the company was issued a cease and desist order this past October. Blazina writes that a search of the business in January turned up “documents that indicated Azeez continued to perform prohibited loan modification” for a Fair Oaks couple and another victim following the order.

As of Wednesday, Azeez, Ferris and Perez were not yet in custody.

“They have all been contacted and advised of the warrants,” said Shelly Orio, media officer with the DA’s Office. “It is anticipated they will turn themselves in, but we are not certain.”

Ferris is also implicated in a separate matter in which he reportedly misappropriated $60,000 in client funds while a licensed attorney.