NJ Sues Multiple Lawyers in Alleged $18M Mortgage Racketeering Scam
A disbarred lawyer who lives in Montvale, N.J., and his son, as well as four other licensed attorneys have been accused of participating in an $18 million mortgage racketeering scam in a lawsuit filed by the state attorney general.
The case concerns a claimed straw-buyer scam allegedly operated through Casey Properties LLC, a Totowa, N.J.-based company owned by disbarred attorney Martin Gendel and his son, Seth Gendel of New York City. Additional defendants include attorneys Edward Evans of Fair Lawn; Damien Figueroa of Oak Ridge; Nicholas Manzi of Totowa; and Francis Memmo of Medford, according to the Burlington County Times and the Daily Record of Morris County.
Three of the four licensed attorneys allegedly acted as closing agents; the fourth, Memmo, was a mortgage solicitor, according to a press release from the attorney general’s office.
The company is accused of luring individuals into allowing their names and credit information to be used on no-money-down property purchases in several North Jersey cities, in which claimed inflated appraisals apparently persuaded banks to issue mortgages in the buyers’ names. Then the purported buyers’ credit was allegedly destroyed as the company defaulted on the mortgages and allowed the properties to go into foreclosure, according to the press release and media accounts.
The defendants are accused of a pattern of racketeering activity in the lawsuit. “Included in the civil RICO count are such predicate acts as theft by deception, falsifying records and issuing false financial statements, as well as accepting commissions on phony mortgage loans, forging documents and collecting rent monies that were to go toward mortgage payments, but keeping the funds instead,” the press release states.
The claimed scam involved at least 32 investors and purchases of 63 properties worth $18 million.
“Not only were investors defrauded, according to the lawsuit, but [Casey Properties] took huge fees at closing based on inflated prices,” writes KYW Newsradio 1060.
