Contact Palm Beach Business.com by phone: 561 450-8258. By email.
Delray Beach man gets prison for scamming seniors
By Palm Beach Business.com
FORT LAUDERDALE — A Delray Beach man who masterminded a $2.5 million reverse mortgage scam has been sentenced to 70 months in federal prison.
Louis Gendason, 42, of Delray Beach, also must serve five years of supervised release and pay more than $2 million in restitution. Gendason masterminded a complex scam that lured financially distressed elderly homeowners into applying for reverse mortgage loans. Once the loans were approved, Gendason and the others would steal the proceeds.
Gendason is the last of four defendants to be sentenced in the case.
“This reverse mortgage loan modification scheme robbed elderly homeowners of more than just their homes,” U.S. Attorney Wifredo A. Ferrer said. “It also robbed them of the American dream of home ownership, their peace of mind, and in some cases, their life’s savings. Through these prosecutions, these fraudsters have been brought to justice."
A reverse mortgage allows borrowers who are at least 62 years old to convert the equity in their homes into income, or a line of credit. The lender is essentially buying the homeowner’s equity and making installment payments to him or her.
Two loan officers, John Incandela of Palm Beach, and Marcos Echevarria, solicited senior homeowners to refinance their mortgages with a reverse mortgage loan through Genworth Financial. None of the prospective borrower had enough equity in their homes to qualify for a reverse mortgage, but that was no problem. Gendason simply inflated the appraisals on the properties.
Kim Mackey, a Pittsburgh-based title agent, closed the Genworth loans but kept the proceeds, which the defendants divided among themselves.
Because of the scam, Genworth Financial approved more than $2.5 million in reverse mortgage loans that should never have gone through.
|