Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi filed a court action against a group who was allegedly claiming to be lawyers and operating an illegitimate foreclosure defense and loan modification law firm.
This group consisted of Adam Forman, Joseph Hilton, or Joseph Starr, Victor Spagnuolo and others, all of whom are not lawyers, yet were operating the firm.
Some of the firms they operated include Asset Protection Law Firm, Heritage Law Group, Liberty Law Group, Consumer Legal Resources, Consumer Legal Advocates, Legal Referral Services, Galler Lehman Law and Selective Housing Solutions.
The defendants allegedly lied to homeowners in order to have them pay large up-front fees for legal services no supervised or approved by licensed attorneys.
“Florida homeowners facing the stress of foreclosure should not have to worry about scammers posing as lawyers and making false promises of relief to get what little money the homeowners may have,” Bondi said.
“Thanks to the great work and dedication of my Consumer Protection Division, we will continue to fight foreclosure rescue fraud and protect homeowners,” he said.
The Attorney General’s Office filed the action with the Coral Springs Police Department, Boca Raton Police Department, the Broward County State Attorney’s Office and the United States Secret Service, all of which are separately investigating the possibility of criminal charges for the defendants.
Among the Attorney General’s Office’s 37 complaints from consumers about the defendants’ deceptive and unfair practices were claims that they made misleading representations regarding the law firms’ expert legal services, charged unlawful up-front fees prior to the services being completed, failed to protect the consumers’ homes from foreclosure and failed to obtain promised loan modifications.
