Brokers guilty of fraud on Solon, Pepper Pike, Glenwillow, Cleveland homes

CLEVELAND -- Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Bill George Mason announced that Jesse James Sims and his mortgage brokerage firm company, County Home Mortgage of Ohio, were establish guilty after a three-day experimental for mortgage fraud discourtesies involving a house at 35675 Sedge Circle in Statesman that was fraudulently purchased with a $490,000 loan.

His sentencing is put for 1 p.m. April 14.Sims is a co-defendant inch another mortgage fraud lawsuit involving another Statesman place that is put for trial on May 5.Just before the Sims trial, two other co-defendants, both mortgage agents and their companies, pleaded guilty for their engagement in the Statesman house and four other houses fraudulently purchased.Mortgage broker, Fred Watkins, of Prime Minister Mortgage Ohio, pleaded guilty to three, fourth-degree felonies for three houses: two in Statesman and one in Pepper Pike.In addition, he agreed to plead guilty to 20 felonies for 20 other places located in Solon, Glenwillow, and Cleveland.He confronts a upper limit sentence of 35.5 old age in prison house for these 23 houses which had a sum loan value of $9,818,000."(Sims) took advantage of relaxed criteria of the subprime industry-he knew the purchaser did not have got the income to measure up for a $490,000 loan. His fake claim that he had no duty to verify a declared loan is representative of the infinite unscrupulous agents that have got got contributed to the rampant mortgage fraud in Cuyahoga County," George Mason said.Sims'loan officer/loan processor, Floyd Patterson, pleaded guilty to four misdemeanours involving 4 properties: 1 house in Solon; 1 house in Pepper Pike; and 2 houses in Cleveland.Watkins, his company, and Patterson will pay damages that includes back taxations and fines, which will be determined at sentencing.Both agreed to attest truthfully against others and immediately after his plea, Watkins testified against Sims and his company.Shirley Rodgers, an proprietor of the now-defunct Regency Title; Erectile Dysfunction Emery, a detergent builder in Solon; and Eloise Anderson, the purchaser of these properties, also testified against Sims.Rogers, Emery, and Sherwood Sherwood Sherwood Anderson have already been establish guilty for their deceitful behavior regarding this Statesman house and others.Emery and Anderson are serving prison house footing and Richard Richard Rodgers will be sentenced after Sims' adjacent trial in May.

Mortgage help expanded

Help is on the manner for some Ohioans at hazard of losing their places as portion of a growth subprime
mortgage crisis.

The Buckeye State Housing Finance Agency announced yesterday that it have eased the demands for its
Opportunity Loan Refinance Program, which offers consumers the opportunity to refinance at a fixed rate
for 30 years.

The programme is designed to assist low- and moderate-income consumers refinance interest-only,
high-rate or adjustable-rate mortgages before the loans adjust. Often, when initial involvement rates
expire and higher rates take effect, the consequent payments are beyond homeowners' agency and they
are not able to maintain up.

The new guidelines for the state programme are more than lenient. Now, borrowers who have got had one
60-day and two 30-day late payments in the past 12 calendar months on their existent mortgage may still be
considered for the loan, said Doug Garver, executive manager director of the state agency.

The move will increase the figure of consumers eligible for the loans, he said.

"With these expanded underwriting guidelines, we trust to assist 100s of Buckeye State households maintain the
home they have got worked so difficult to obtain," Garver said.

To be eligible for the program, householders must ran into certain fiscal guidelines, complete four
hours of lodging guidance and, in John Hope Franklin County, must have got a family income of $80,500 or
less. The charge per unit for these 30-year-fixed-rate loans is 7.5 percent, Garver said. The programme already
has put aside $14 million for loans and closed on 25 loans worth a sum of about $3 million, he
said.

Garver declined to give a upper limit amount the federal agency could offer in loans to consumers.

The federal agency also have a first-time home purchaser programme that offerings consumers with less-than-perfect
or untraditional recognition histories fixed-rate loans with rates between 6.375 percentage and 6.875
percent.

Steve Torsell, executive manager director of Homes on the Hill Community Development Corp., which serves
Columbus' Occident Side and Hilltop areas, names the moderation of the guidelines a good move. The
nonprofit lodging grouping offerings home-buying support, including place purchaser classes.

"Sometimes people happen themselves with more than debt duties 1 calendar month over another for various
reasons, such as as illness, divorce, occupation loss or other unexpected emergencies," he said. "So it's
good to have got a loan merchandise that acknowledges that sometimes haps to good people who otherwise are
able to ran into their loan obligations.

"No 1 desires to foreclose on a home, because it's not good for the loaner or the homeowner. It's much more than economical to maintain a loan in place, so my conjecture is that a batch more people would find
this a utile product."

Dave Mack, concern director for American Mortgage Service in Worthington, agrees. The company is
one of respective sanctioned loaners that offering the refinance loans through the Buckeye State Housing Finance
Agency.

"It do the programme more than appealing to more borrowers, but you still have got to measure up based on
other recognition guidelines," he said. "It's a good thing for the people that demand the help, because
(they're) probably in mortgages they can't afford."