There is a place on Coney Island Avenue that provides “Debt Settlement Services”. I don’t know the company, and I don’t know the people who run the company. But I would imagine the business model of the company and the like goes something like this: “If you’re in credit card debt over $5,000, call us and we can negotiate with your creditors and save you THOUSANDS in interest and late payment fees.” I can guarantee that within the next few years, the neighborhood will be inundated with even more places like it. Again, I am stressing that I don’t know the people who run this place. What I can tell you, in my opinion, is that debt settlement as a business model is a complete and utter ripoff that has caused people to lose millions of dollars – and they usually have absolutely nothing to show for it. Continue Reading »
Archive for the tag 'scams'
Twenty-three individuals were indicted in the Southern District of New York on allegations that they participated in an illegal scheme to defraud various banks and financial institutions by submitting fraudulent applications and supporting documentation for mortgages and home equity loans. As a result, the lenders were induced to make loans to persons and at terms that the lenders otherwise would not have funded. The defendants include brokers and processors who worked at the mortgage brokerages AGA Capital NY, Inc.(’AGA Capital‘) and Northside Capital NY, Inc. (’Northside Capital‘), in Brooklyn, New York, real estate appraisers and loan account executives.
-”Twenty Three Indicted in New York Straw Buyer Scheme”; Mortgage Fraud Blog;Jan. 5, 2007
Two ringleaders of a multimillion-dollar mortgage scam [Maurice McDowall, who directed the daily operations of the scheme, and Aleksander Lipkin, a mortgage broker who coordinated the fraudulent loans] are facing up to 30 years in prison and heavy fines and restitution after pleading guilty to bilking banks and fleecing foreclosure victims in Brooklyn
-”Two found guilty in mortgage scam and face 30 years in prison“; Daily News; June 5, 2008
I am under a fiduciary duty to my clients. I must put their interests ahead of mine. All attorneys do. The problem is, when millions of dollars were on the line in Sheepshead Bay and Coney Island, some attorneys didn’t do that. In one of the more elaborate schemes to play out in the world of real estate fraud in Brooklyn, members of AGA Capital, Inc., a mortgage brokerage on Coney Island Avenue, teamed up with attorneys, including Alexander Kaplan, Esq., real estate brokers, and appraisers in a scheme which earned millions of dollars in fees from using “straw” purchasers and filing false documents, including appraisals, earning commissions, fees, and more in the process. Many of the defendants have been sentenced to long terms in federal prison and the attorney involved lost his license and is also going to jail for some time. Worst of all, homeowners were literally robbed of their houses.
Believe it or not, this kind of thing happens every day, though usually on a much smaller scale. So what in the world are you to do if you are a purchaser in Sheepshead Bay and want to make sure your attorney is legitimate? Here are some tips to protect yourself: Continue Reading »
