A federal court has banned three men and their company from the mortgage modification business and ordered them to pay nearly $19 million for consumer refunds. The defendants allegedly deceived distressed homeowners with phony claims that they would negotiate with lenders to modify their mortgages and make them more affordable.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) sued First Universal Lending and its owners in November 2009 as part of a continuing federal-state crackdown on mortgage foreclosure rescue and loan modification scams.
As alleged in the FTC’s complaint, the defendants encouraged homeowners to stop making mortgage payments, saying lenders would not negotiate unless they were at least a few months behind in their payments.
After charging consumers up to $7,000 in up-front fees, the defendants often did little or nothing to help them, the agency charged. The court subsequently halted the defendants’ operation, froze their assets, and ordered them to disable their Web sites and computers.
In addition to imposing a judgment of more than $18.8 million against the defendants, the settlement orderbans them from the mortgage relief services business. It also permanently prohibits the defendants from misrepresenting material facts about any good or service, violating the Telemarketing Sales Rule, selling or using customers’ personal information, failing to properly dispose of customer information, and collecting payments from their customers.
The defendants are First Universal Lending LLC, Sean Zausner, David Zausner, and David J. Feingold, an attorney in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida.
The FTC asks people to report foreclosure rescue and mortgage modification scams to FTC.gov or by calling 1-877-FTC-HELP. The FTC makes those complaints available to federal, state, and local law enforcement through the Consumer Sentinel Network.
