NCDA: Man Scammed Long Island Homeowners Out of $728K

A Dix Hills man who runs a mortgage modification business is being accused of stealing approximately $728,330 from more than 30 homeowners in Nassau County, Suffolk County and the surrounding areas, Acting Nassau County District Attorney Madeline Singas announced Thursday.

Mark Savransky, 56, who operated a business in Nassau County under the name Mark Savran, was arrested Thursday for deceiving homeowners in Merrick and elsewhere from 2008 to 2013, the DA reports.

Savransky allegedly scammed residents from: Amityville, Baldwin, Bayside, Brentwood, the Bronx, Brooklyn, East Northport, Farmingdale, Hempstead, Hicksville, Huntington, Levittown, Lynbrook, Malverne, Merrick, Mount Vernon, New Hyde Park, Queens Village, Richmond Hill, Riverhead, Uniondale and Westbury.

“This defendant preyed on vulnerable homeowners who had subprime mortgages and some of the victims nearly lost their homes,” Singas said in a statement.

Most of Savransky’s clients bought their homes at some point between 2006 and 2009 and needed help in obtaining mortgage modifications.

“The victims made honest attempts to renegotiate their mortgages, yet the defendant lied to them and stole more than $728,000 to line his pockets,” Singas said.

Savransky told homeowners that after securing modifications, he would “hold their mortgage payments in trust and forward them to the financial institutions servicing the homeowners’ mortgages,” according to the DA.

He instead allegedly converted the funds for personal use. The DA’s office said he used the funds for ATM cash withdrawals, credit card payments, child support, car payments, gasoline, travel expenses, restaurants, grocery stores, department stores and Netflix.

Here’s how he did it, according to the Nassau County DA report:

“Savransky requested that all the paperwork from the bank be given to him and if additional paperwork was sent by the bank to the victim, he would demand that it be given to him immediately, preferably unopened.

The defendant then counseled clients to give him the monthly mortgage payment that was due under the modified mortgage. Savransky would inform his clients that he would make the payments on their behalf and, in doing so, create a record of payment that would prevent a lender from denying that payments had been made or from reneging on any mortgage modification that had been obtained. At the defendant’s request, these payments were mostly made in cash or by check that would leave out the payee. Savransky would later complete the payee portion of the check, thereby giving him the means to misappropriate the funds.

As a consequence of the mortgage payments not being made, lenders started to foreclose on the properties belonging to the defendant’s clients. When some the homeowners complained to him, some of them would receive a limited amount of a repayment.“

Savransky was charged with four counts of second degree grand larceny, 24 counts of third degree grand larceny, two counts of fourth degree grand larceny and first degree scheme to defraud.

Bail was set at $250,000 bond or $125,000 cash. Savransky, who was asked to surrender his passport, could face a maximum sentence of 7 ½ to 15 years in prison.

He is also currently charged with third degree grand larceny involving a theft of mortgage payments from another homeowner. These charges will be prosecuted with the additional charges from Thursday.

Savransky faces to 10 to 20 years in prison if sentenced consecutively.

He is due back in court on Monday, Aug. 31.

Image via NDCA