| News Room - Feinstein in the News |
 |
Elderly Fear Home Loss in Loan Scheme
Daily News of Los Angeles
Thursday, March 27, 2008
For Charles and Patricia Simmons, the offer seemed like a boon as they coped with extra medical costs: lower monthly payments on their $550,000 Inglewood home, reduced interest rates and $25,000 in cash.
Instead, the couple ended up with no cash, a $5,600 monthly mortgage payment, deeper debt, much of their savings lost -- and facing the potential loss of their longtime home.
``Please, please, do something to help us and others like us,'' Patricia Simmons said Wednesday at a Los Angeles City Hall news conference.
``There are so many crooked mortgage dealers that are hurting the elderly who are facing the loss of their homes like myself.''
Investigators say the Simmonses are among people throughout Southern California who were defrauded -- apparently out of millions of dollars -- in what officials call an elaborate bait-and-switch scheme operated by a San Fernando Valley group.
The homes, bank accounts and luxury cars owned by Eric Michael Pony; his sister, Paulette; and mother, Wilma, have been frozen or seized, and the Ponys remain in custody in San Bernardino County on various charges as prosecutors ask for $2 million in bail for each of them. Four others also have been arrested.
``We still don't know how much of a loss there was for the public,'' said Larry Roberts, a deputy district attorney in San Bernardino who began investigating the Ponys more than 18 months ago.
Eventually, the San Bernardino case merged with investigations by the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office and by the state Attorney General's Office.
Earlier this month, the Attorney General's Office won a court order to seize the assets of Pony and his family, including two Ferraris and a Bentley.
Officials said the Ponys operated as Lifetime Financial, with offices at 3771 Cahuenga Blvd., Studio City; 16501 Ventura Blvd., Encino; and 6928 Owensmouth Ave., Canoga Park.
In addition to Lifetime Financial, the group operated through firms called Nations Mortgage, Greenleaf Lending, Virtual Escrow, Olympic Escrow and Direct Credit Solutions, according to investigators. The Attorney General's Office shut down all the operations, officials said.
Also arrested on various fraud and conspiracy charges were people said to be working as telemarketers. They are Eli Hassine, 25, of Sherman Oaks; Carol Binnie Pencille, 57, of Granada Hills; Sibpun Ampornpet, 31, of North Hollywood; and Jason Imperial Burbidge, 35, of West Hills.
The Lifetime Financial telephones were switched off, and there was no response to e-mail requests for interviews Wednesday. Efforts to contact attorneys for the defendants were unsuccessful.
Pony, 25, whose real estate license was pulled by the state in 2007, is accused of preying on the elderly and minorities to persuade them to refinance their homes in return for cash payments and a promise of low interest rates.
Instead, officials said, the people never received any money and were forced to pay as much as 11 percent in interest and also to come up with a prepayment of thousands of dollars.
``This is the worst thing I can imagine happening to someone,'' Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said at a news conference with Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.
``To face the loss of your house, your prized possession and all its equity, is to me the worst thing that could happen to people.''
Feinstein has introduced a measure as part of a package of proposals that would develop regulations on mortgage lenders.
Other parts of the package would require full disclosure of costs and fees to homeowners.
The two officials pointed to what they called a ``map of misery'' of homes on which foreclosure proceedings have begun.
In California alone, more than 480,000 foreclosures are under way. Nearly 200,000 of those are in the Los Angeles-Riverside-San Bernardino areas.
Feinstein said the case involving Lifetime is an example of problems faced nationwide.
``The subprime mortgage brokerage and lending business is like peeling the skin off an onion,'' Feinstein said. ``As you peel it back, you find there are fraudulent and unethical practices.
``The fact is there are bad actors in this business, and they must be stopped.''
|
|
|
|
|
