Maddiwar faces 20 years in prison, if found guilty.
AB Wire
NEW YORK: An Indian American attorney in New York, or as he claimed himself to be, Rajesh Maddiwar, is among three individuals charged in Manhattan Federal Court in a multimillion-dollar scheme to dupe distressed homeowners into selling their homes, with the promise of helping them to cling on to their property.
Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that Maddiwar, Mario Alvarenga and Amir Meiri were arrested for participating in a scheme to fraudulently induce distressed homeowners to sell their homes to a company associated with the defendants.
“In what is alleged to be a brazen fraud, these defendants manipulated and took advantage of vulnerable people, and in some cases even tricked individuals into losing their homes,” said Bharara in a statement.
According to court documents, the trio took advantage of distressed home owners, mostly the poor and elderly, promising relief. In reality it was nothing more than a callous scheme that took advantage of the most desperate of victims. And in many cases, the owners were evicted from their homes after being tricked into selling their property to the accused.
According to the allegations in the Complaint unsealed today in Manhattan federal court, since at least 2013, the trio defrauded distressed homeowners throughout the Bronx, Brooklyn, and Queens.
They falsely represented to these homeowners – some of whom were elderly or in poor health – that they could assist them with a loan modification or similar relief from foreclosure that would allow the homeowners to save their homes. But rather than actually assisting these homeowners, the defendants deceived them into selling their homes to Launch Development LLC (“Launch Development”), a for-profit real estate company also affiliated with the defendants.
The trio lured victims through the Homeowners Assistance Service of New York (“HASNY”), which purported to provide assistance to homeowners who were seeking to avoid foreclosure of their homes. As part of the scheme, Meiri directed employees of Launch Development, a company owned in part by him, to solicit owners of distressed properties and invite them to meet with HASNY representatives so that they could learn more about avoiding foreclosure and saving their homes.
When a homeowner arrived at the HASNY office, he or she met with Alvarenga, who typically advised the homeowner that HASNY could assist him or her with a loan modification. In still other cases, Alvarenga advised the homeowner that a loan modification could not be completed, but that the homeowner could engage in a type of short sale in which the homeowner would sell the property to a third party, Launch Development, and then within approximately 90 days arrange for a relative of the homeowner to repurchase the property from Launch Development.
Alvarenga typically explained that the homeowner could remain in his or her home throughout the entire process. He then typically scheduled a closing at which the homeowner would meet with Maddiwar, who was described as the homeowner’s attorney for the transaction.
At the closing, a homeowner who had been led to believe that he or she was about to receive a loan modification or transfer his or her property to a trusted relative was encouraged to sign documents presented by Maddiwar, which in some cases were blank. Unbeknownst to the homeowners, by signing the documents, they were selling to Launch Development the homes they had hoped to save. Homeowners often were then forced to vacate their homes soon thereafter.
Maddiwar was running a private company from Jamaica, New York, since 2006.
The trio are each charged with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, which carries a maximum term of 20 years in prison.