A New York man will spend the next 15 years in prison after pleading guilty to charges relating to his part in a scheme that defrauded more than 1,000 distressed homeowners by falsely promising loan modifications.
According to the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program, David Gotterup pleaded guilty back in June 2016 to conspiring to commit wire, mail and bank fraud.
The charges stem from a scheme involving Gotterup and several others.
According to court documents, Gotterup and his co-conspirators made a series of false promises to convince more than 1,000 thousand distressed homeowners who were seeking a government mortgage modification to pay thousands of dollars each in advance fees to numerous companies owned or controlled by Gotterup.
Those companies included Express Modifications, Express Home Solutions, True Credit Empire, Green Group Today, The Green Law Group, and JG Group.
Court documents showed that Gotterup told telemarketers and salespeople to lie to distressed homeowners by telling them that they were “preapproved” for loan modifications.
The telemarketers and salespeople also falsely told people that they were retaining a “law firm” and an “attorney” who would complete their mortgage relief applications for them and negotiate with the banks to modify the terms of their mortgages on their behalf.
But, in reality, Gotterup and his co-conspirators did little or no work in connection with these fraudulently induced advanced fees, SIGTARP said.
According to the authorities, Gotterup admitted to causing more than $3.5 million in losses.
For his crimes, Gotterup received a sentence of 15 years in federal prison. The court also ordered Gotterup to pay $2,500,050 in forfeiture.
SIGTARP said that restitution to the victims of Gotterup’s scheme will be determined at a later date.
