LOS ANGELES - US federal prosecutors on Monday charged 19 people with targeting financially troubled homeowners in order to steal their homes in what officials called the largest foreclosure rescue scam in the United States.
The alleged scam, based in Orange County, California, robbed more than 250 homeowners across the country of US$12.6 million over a two-year period, prosecutors said.
The mortgage-fraud ring, led by Charles Head, 33, allegedly lured homeowners into the scam by promising that their homes would be saved and their credit repaired. But the victims later found themselves with no place to live and their credit in even greater disarray.
The defendants could face fines and sentences of up to 20 years in prison.
Hundreds of thousands of homeowners in the United States have lost their homes to foreclosure in the past two years after being unable to manage their loan payments amid rising mortgage rates and a sluggish housing market.
