It is Time for Infamous Foreclosure Scammer to Face the Music

June 16th, 2009 | Tags: Foreclosure

foreclosurerepos

It is now time for an infamous foreclosure scammer to face the music. Joseph Kaiser of Tacoma, Washington State, has been ordered by a judge in King County to repay over $3.2 million to those whom he had fleeced. Over and above this he would have to pay $179,000 for transgressing Consumer Protection Act.

Kaiser is the first so-called foreclosure ‘rescuer’ to be put on trial by the Consumer Protection Division of the state under the aegis of the Attorney General. The department is committed to oversee fair market practices in the interests of consumers as well as business entities.

The Attorney General Rob McKenna announced that he was very happy with the ruling of the judge and declared it to be a major victory for the consumers. McKenna said, “Thanks to the hard work of our Consumer Protection Division, he will no longer be able to prey on struggling homeowners.” His office also got an order that would permanently debar Kaiser from conducting real estate business with foreclosure victims. Kaiser entered into dealing with over 300 house owners but none have been able to save their homes.

Apart from acting as godfather to the borrowers he has authored many books laying down strategies for making quick profits from real estate transactions. He has also conducted many seminars instructing participants on his methods for earning huge sums of money by dabbling in distressed units.

In the trial the state was represented by Assistant General Attorneys Jim Sugarman and Jake Bernstein. Testimony was given and arguments continued for six days during the months of December 2008 and also January 2009. Sugarman noted, “Kaiser’s victims were elderly, disabled or low-income individuals – people who trusted him to solve their foreclosure problems and were betrayed. Kaiser portrayed himself to these people as an expert in saving homes facing foreclosure, when he is actually an expert in taking homes facing foreclosure.”

Palmer Robinson the Superior Court Judge of King County ordered the fraudster to give $4.2 million to partly reimburse the state for the costs it had incurred towards legal expenses for conducting the legal suit.

McKenna felt upbeat about the final results of a case that kicked off in March 2007 when civil suit was filed by the state against Kaiser and some of his colleagues. It was alleged that the defendants made use of public records kept with the country treasury to make contact with the foreclosure victims with help offers.