The office of Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum has filed a lawsuit against a South Florida company and its owners for allegedly engaging in a deceptive foreclosure rescue and mortgage default mitigation scheme. Outreach Housing LLC and owners Blair L. Wright and Bryan E. Berry are named in the lawsuit, which states the defendants victimized numerous Florida homeowners by misrepresenting the services which that had been paid to provide.
An investigation by the Attorney General's Mortgage Fraud Task Force indicated the defendants allegedly represented to Florida homeowners that they should not make payments to their mortgage lenders as due, but should instead pay Outreach Housing approximately 60% of the monthly payments due to their lenders. In return for these monthly payments, the company and its owners allegedly claimed they would work with the lenders to reduce the consumers' mortgage debts. According to consumers' complaints, these services were not provided.
The attorney general's office says it received more than 50 complaints from homeowners, but further investigation revealed that more than 600 homeowners had signed up for the company's services. The lawsuit seeks consumer restitution and civil penalties of $10,000 per violation of Florida's Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act. McCollum has also asked the court to prohibit the defendants from engaging in any business activity or operations offering, soliciting, providing or dealing in or related to the residential and commercial real estate business, including but not limited to mortgage financing, sales or brokerage.
SOURCE: Office of Attorney General Bill McCollum
