Attorney General Martha Coakley has settled a suit with Marie Bettie Mereus, a straw buyer who participated in a massive foreclosure scheme targeted at troubled homeowners facing foreclosure.
Mereus is one of 19 mortgage brokers, real estate brokers, closing attorneys and straw buyers who deceived homeowners facing foreclosure into selling their homes under the false promise of avoiding foreclosure and maintaining their homes and their homes’ equity, according to a statement.
In March 2007, the AG’s office found the defendants not only obtained the titles to the homeowners’ residences but also stripped most of the homes’ equity by failing to account for deposits and other monies due from the buyers, disbursing sale proceeds for unearned brokers’ fees and other fictitious services and drafted and submitted to lenders HUD Settlement Statements that did not accurately reflect the disbursements made in the transactions.
In certain cases, the defendants allegedly resold the homes in multiple transactions amongst themselves, thereby stripping the homes of all their equity.
According to the complaint, Mereus received a payment for allowing the defendant mortgage brokers to use her name in applying for a loan to purchase one of the properties identified.
Contrary to representations made to the lenders in the completed loan application, Mereus took title to the property without paying any deposits or closing costs, and without intending to occupy the property.
Under the terms of the consent judgment filed recently in Suffolk Superior Court, Mereus is prohibited from acting as a straw buyer or otherwise obtaining loans through misrepresentation and must pay $5,000 in restitution and $1,500 in attorney’s fees and costs to the commonwealth. The $5,000 represents the money Mereus was paid for her role as a straw buyer in the transaction. The AG’s office will distribute the restitution paid by Mereus to those Massachusetts consumers who have suffered damages as a result of the foreclosure rescue schemes.
Mereus is the second defendant and first straw buyer out of the original 19 defendants to settle. In June, the Attorney General’s Office reached a settlement with closing attorney Valerie Hanserd.
The trial against the remaining defendants is scheduled to begin Nov. 9 in Suffolk Superior Court.
