Ex-Lawyer Agrees to Pay Clients $1M Restitution Over 'Phony' Foreclosure Suits
A Los Angeles lawyer who resigned from the California Bar last year has agreed to pay $1 million in restitution and another $125,000 in penalties for an alleged scam to bilk homeowners seeking help in avoiding foreclosure. Mitchell Roth admitted no wrongdoing, under terms of the settlement, and now resides in Florida, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Attorney General Jerry Brown filed a suit (PDF) against Roth last year alleging he filed “frivolous and phony” lawsuits that claimed mortgages were invalid because they had been bought and sold repeatedly and their ownership could not be proved. The suit said Roth failed to appear at court hearings or file paperwork on time, but collected monthly fees from homeowners.
Roth was handling legal work for Nevada-based United First Inc., and its owner Paul Noe, both also named in the attorney general’s suit.
Noe is still in litigation over it. He also has been convicted of wire fraud, the Times said.
United First charged homeowners $1,800 up front and then a minimum $1,250 each month, according to the Times, even when Roth was failing to properly pursue their claims. Roth did not prevail in any of the cases, so he and Noe did not collect on another term of the agreements: 50 percent of any cash value settlement.
Instead, said Attorney General Brown in a news release, Roth “left 2,000 desperate homeowners in even greater debt.”