State: Mortgage fraud victims to get over $3 million

Audio By Carbonatix

(The Center Square) – Roughly 900 Californians will get a portion of $3 million secured by a state agency after they fell victim to multi-year mortgage fraud, according to the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation.

A total of 1,800 people will get a portion of that money from California and other states, the agency said in a press release.

The announcement follows a 2024 federal court order that found a mortgage lender made false promises to reduce a homeowner’s monthly mortgage payments and help prevent foreclosure during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Daniel Emmons, a representative from the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation, wrote in an email to The Center Square on Monday that the department would not comment for the story.

“The DFPI has no additional information to share at this time beyond what was included in the June 9 press release,” Emmons said.

The Federal Trade Commission, which was also involved in the mortgage fraud case, did not make anyone available for an interview on Monday and sent along a press release about the case via email.

��Hi – Any details about what we alleged in this specific case can be found in the complaint,” Juliana Gruenwald Henderson, deputy director for the office of public affairs at the Federal Trade Commission, wrote to The Center Square via email on Monday.

According to the commission's 2024 complaint against the now-defunct company Green Equitable Solutions, employees promised homeowners lower interest rates, reduced principal balances and loan forgiveness. The complaint said the company charged homeowners large amounts of money for its services, then failed to deliver on its promises. 

Several other companies were also named as defendants in that complaint.

The U.S. District Court for Central California ultimately found that multiple companies engaged in a mortgage relief scam, including Home Matters USA, Atlantic Pacific Service Group, Golden Home Services America and Academy Home Services – which Green Equitable Solutions was doing business as, according to the Federal Trade Commission. Each company was banned from continuing the scam and was ordered to turn over $19 million. More than 3,000 people were hurt by the fraudulent scheme, the commission said.

“I’m glad to see our state and federal partners going after mortgage fraud and helping victims,” Assemblymember Joe Patterson, R-Rocklin and vice chair of the Assembly Housing and Community Development Committee, told The Center Square, answering questions by email Tuesday. “Addressing waste and misuse of state funds should be a priority of our state.”

The Center Square reached out to 24 California state senators and Assembly members on both sides of the aisle for this story. Assemblymember Alex Lee, D-Milpitas and a member of the Assembly Housing and Community Development Committee, declined an interview. None of the other lawmakers responded to requests for an interview before publication time on Tuesday.