Foreclosure Scams Lead To Arrests

Two persons accused of cheating foreclosure victims of thousands of dollars have been arrested. Fifty nine years Michael D. Henschel hailing from Van Nuys has a record of brushes with the law. He was taken in by the authorities of Los Angeles County on Thursday 17th March 2008. Henschel is accused of 71 federal charges – forgery, conspiracy and cheating of house owners for four years from 2000. Alan Mitchell aged seventy has also been nabbed and is accused of 32 charges.

Henschel and Mitchell made the victims pay monthly fees for consultation that finally led to transfer of part ownership of the house to a non-existent buyer. They put up a show of negotiating with lenders and took rent from the owners. The two filed for bankruptcy protection raking up papers of a false debt taken under a pseudo name. This enabled the postponement of the foreclosure process allowing time to the cheats to collect rent for quite a few months. The banks too had to undergo further harassment and money to possess the property. The hapless foreclosure victims got evicted in any case – after wasting some more precious funds. So far seven victims have been named but in reality there are hundreds defrauded, said Christopher of the Sheriff’s department.

Deputy District Attorney David Fleck is the prosecutor in this case. It is not sure whether the duo has appointed any legal personnel to represent them. The bail amount for Henschel and Mitchell are $8000, 00 and $400,000 respectively. Many of the sufferers of Henschel had been represented by attorney Pangburn of ventures. He said that Henschel was an expert in real estate matters and knew all the ropes in bankruptcy matters. The foreclosure distressed victims were like puppets in his hands. His clever manipulation of legalities made it difficult for the authorities to nab him right and proper. It needs steady perseverance to net the types of Henschel.

As foreclosure numbers raise so do that of scammers. They pose as foreclosure experts even going to the extent of blatantly hosting web sites. Chris Christopher has been honing in on the duo for quite a number of years. The fraud cases have increased phenomenally and the authorities are having a trying time trying to book the culprits. With the existing infrastructure they are not quite prepared to tackle the rising wave and bemoan that not even a scratch has been made on the surface.