By Mary Ellen
Podmolik and Katherine Skiba |
Lawsuits against two Chicago-area companies were announced Thursday as
part of a national crackdown on companies and individuals allegedly committing
mortgage fraud.

The national sweep, dubbed “Operation Stolen Dreams,” began March 1 and
has ensnared 1,215 criminal defendants blamed for more than $2.3
billion in losses and led to 485 arrests, Attorney General Eric Holder
said Thursday. So far $10.7 million has been seized by authorities in
these cases. Meantime 191 civil enforcement actions have arisen.

Attorney General Eric Holder called the fraud schemes “despicable” and observed, “The breadth of the fraud is truly astonishing.”

One local civil lawsuit, filed against W2X Inc., PTU1 Inc., Y 2 X LLC, and Goldberg Bail-Out, Inc., of Chicago, and Chicago residents Warren Jackson and Yolanda King, charges that the company promised, for an upfront fee, to negotiate lower mortgage payments for individuals and then failed to perform any services.

The companies also are alleged to have orchestrated fraudulent sale-leaseback agreements with delinquent homeowners, in effect tricking consumers into thinking they were saving their home when they were really selling their homes to straw buyers. Homeowners lost from $60,000 to $149,000 of equity in their homes as a result of the equity-stripping sale-leasebacks, Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan alleged.

The other suit, alleging the charging of an upfront fee but with no services performed, was filed against Opportunity Consultants, Inc., of Joliet and Juan C. Rodriguez of Crest Hill, IL, and Mirta Deus, also known as Mirta Tomlinson, of Joliet.

The Chicago area, along with parts of Wisconsin and Indiana, ranked fourth in the country for recent reports of suspicious activity pertaining to potential foreclosure rescue scams, according to Treasury Department officials.
 
The area had 2,973 reports between January  2009 and June 10 of this year, said officials of Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. Suspicious activity reports give leads to law enforcement officials who are targeting financial crimes.
 
 Madigan, who joined top federal law enforcement authorities in Washington, D.C., Thursday, said mortgage fraud cases are the biggest consumer problem her office is confronting.

Illinois has filed 33 suits alleging mortgage rescue fraud, along with more than 400 cease-and-desist letters. Those suits have resulted in 19 judgments, ordering more than $1.2 million in homeowner restitution.