Mortgage Foreclosure Scam Tied to Prince George's County Firm

SILVER SPRING, MD – A bogus mortgage refinancing business that claimed to help homeowners prevent foreclosure instead cost people their homes and bilked thousands of dollars from the victims, federal authorities charge.

A federal grand jury on Feb. 18 indicted Rene de Jesus de Leon, 47, and his wife, Pedrina Rodriguez Bonilla, 37, both of Silver Spring, and Ana Maritza Gomez, 43, of Hyattsville, on charges arising from a residential mortgage fraud scheme.

According to the 10-count indictment and court documents, from at least January 2011 to August 2015, the defendants told homeowners who wanted to modify their mortgage loans and prevent foreclosure of their homes that they could lower their monthly payments and get out of debt sooner. The homeowners had to pay an upfront fee, which was usually between $2,000 and $6,000, subsequent monthly payments and a back-end consulting fee, according to a news release.

The defendants told homeowners to make monthly payments to the defendants and to companies they controlled, not their lenders. The fake companies controlled by the suspects were named Marketing Multiservices LLC and Innovative Solutions Services LLC.

According to court documents, the conspirators mailed monthly invoices to the homeowners. Some of the victims paid Gomez in person monthly, or one of the defendants would go to the home of the victim to pick up the monthly payment. The homeowners were told not to open any mail from their lenders; the defendants did not negotiate with lenders of behalf of the homeowners, prosecutors said.

For example, one victim who was current on his mortgage paid $50,000 to Bonilla and Gomez, instead of his lender. The victim then received a foreclosure notice from his lender.

Another victim told investigators she paid the suspects at least $20,000, but was evicted from her house, had her cars towed, her dogs boarded and her belongings put on the front lawn.

The defendants face a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison for conspiring to commit mail and wire fraud, and 20 years in prison for each of nine counts of mail fraud. De Leon and Bonilla are currently in jail.