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Broward County pair guilty of foreclosure scam

By Palm Beach Business.com

WEST PALM BEACH — A federal jury has found two Broward County residents guilty of fraud and conspiracy in connection with a scheme that targeted financially distressed homeowners and stole whatever equity they might have had in the property.

Cathy Saffer of Pompano Beach, owner of Tamarac-based Foreclosure Solution Specialists, was found guilty of one county of conspiracy and five counts of mail and wire fraud, while Barrington Coombs, a CPA from Weston, was found guilty of conspiracy and one count of wire fraud.

According to prosecutors, Foreclosure Solution Specialists promised to help homeowners on the verge of foreclosure save their homes. Saffer and co-owner Lisa M. Wright of Pompano Beach claimed that they would sell the homes to investors, who would allow the occupants to continue to live there.  They also told the distressed owners that they would have the opportunity to buy back the home a later date.

None of this was true.

Instead of selling the homes to legitimate investors, the women arranged sham sales to straw parties — who they paid to participate — obtaining loans from banks by providing bogus employment histories, income and net worth. Coombs, the CPA, would vouch for the truthfulness of the applications.

These sham sales drew equity out of the homes, which Wright and Saffer pocketed. They then allowed the loans to go into foreclosure. Homeowners ultimately lost all of the equity in their homes, and most of the victims were forced to move out of their homes.

Wright pleaded guilty in March.