Two Orange County men were arrested on charges of theft and conspiracy in what state prosecutors called a $6 million mortgage modification scam that victimized thousands of financially troubled homeowners across the nation.
Christopher Fox, 37, of Laguna Niguel and Curtis Melone, 37, of Huntington Beach were being held at the Orange County Jail in lieu of $500,000 each in bail, officials with the state Attorney General's Office said.
Both pleaded not guilty at an arraignment in Orange County Superior Court Wednesday and were expected to post bail later. They face a maximum of 36 years in state prison if convicted on all counts, a spokeswoman said.
A third man, disbarred Tennessee lawyer King Harris III, 42, also was charged in the case, state prosecutors said. Officials plan to seek extradition of Harris to California from Missouri, where he's facing federal mail and wire fraud charges.
According to the 37-count felony complaint, Fox and Melone operated Green Credit Solutions in Irvine, which charged thousands of homeowners facing foreclosure $3,500 apiece in up-front fees in exchange for attorney services that never were provided.
Instead, state prosecutors maintain, Green Credit Solutions and its related companies did little, if anything, on behalf of its clients.
The mortgage-aid firm also maintained falsely that it had a lawyer on staff and was affiliated with a law firm with a network of attorneys, state prosecutors said. Instead, the only counsel was Harris, who had a suspended law license at the time, and the affiliated law firm was defunct.
According to the Attorney General's Office, Green Credit Solutions later was renamed as Guardian Credit Services and Get My Credit Grade as complaints to the California Department of Real Estate, the California State Bar and the Better Business Bureau began piling up.
The state bar successfully petitioned to have the mortgage-aid firms shut down in January 2010, along with four other firms affiliated with Fox and Melone: Green Credit Services, Erickson Law Group, Green Credit Law and PacWest Funding. Melone surrendered his real estate license early in 2010.
Fox or Melone couldn't be reached for comment, and neither had hired attorneys as of Wednesday who could speak on their behalf.
However, their former lawyer, Edward Lear of Los Angeles, emailed the Register in January 2010 stating that "Mr. Melone and Mr. Fox have never engaged in the unauthorized practice of law."
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
留言列表
