3 indicted in alleged foreclosure rescue scam
Monday, Aug. 30, 2010 | 6:37 p.m.
Three people were indicted on multiple felony charges Monday for allegedly operating a foreclosure rescue scam in Las Vegas during 2008 and 2009, according to the Attorney General's Office.
The three defendants — Doninador Palalay, Marie Tejada Medina and Benjamin Aquino Moraleda III — allegedly misled customers by falsely claiming their services would prevent foreclosures on their homes and saying they would obtain loan modifications, according to a statement. They allegedly operated the foreclosure rescue scam under the business name of PDM Financial Group, Inc.
The group allegedly charged 1 percent of the victims' loan balance — or between $2,600 to $3,700 — for loan modification and document preparation services, officials said.
The defendants also defrauded customers by having them sign deeds of trust that gave the defendants liens on the victims' homes based on false promissory notes, officials said.
The promissory notes deceptively claimed that loans had been made on properties to cloud the title to the home and prevent the legitimate lenders from foreclosing on the victims' properties, officials said.
According to the attorney general, Palalay and Medina also allegedly defrauded a person older than 60 by enticing him to invest a large sum of money in PDM Financial Group, Inc. without telling him the business was a criminal enterprise. They also allegedly convinced the victim to open numerous credit cards, which they used for their personal expenses, leaving him with substantial credit card debt, officials said.
The Attorney General's Mortgage Fraud Task Force and Bureau of Consumer Protection investigated the case after receiving complaints about PDM Financial Group, Inc.
Officials said arrest warrants have been issued for the three defendants.
Discussion: comments so far…
Comments are moderated by Las Vegas Sun editors. Our goal is not to limit the discussion, but rather to elevate it. Comments should be relevant and contain no abusive language. Comments that are off-topic, vulgar, profane or include personal attacks will be removed. Full comments policy. Additionally, we now display comments from trusted commenters by default. Those wishing to become a trusted commenter need to verify their identity or sign in with Facebook Connect to tie their Facebook account to their Las Vegas Sun account. For more on this change, read our story about how it works and why we did it.
Only trusted comments are displayed on this page. Untrusted comments have expired from this story.
No trusted comments have been posted.
Post a comment
Most Popular
- Viewed
- Discussed
- E-mailed
- South Point owner Michael Gaughan’s take on ‘Vegas Stripped’: ‘I’ll give it an 8’
- Coolican: Henderson officials out of loop on police brutality case, raising red flags
- See mug shots of 16 arrested in stolen-property police sting
- Lumberjacks — ‘Where the Big Boys Eat’ — hiring for North Las Vegas location
- Berkley draws stark contrasts with Heller over immigration
- Conceptual design unveiled for Henderson Space and Science Center
- Rebels open as a 9.5-point favorite against No. 13 San Diego State
- Send your loved one a virtual Vegas Valentine’s Day card right now
- Short memories may serve president
- Howard Miller, prominent lawyer and ‘true Las Vegas native,’ dies at 68
Blogs
The Kats Report
Live color from the scene at Thomas & Mack Center: We have a wire job! Rebels win, and Louie Armstrong sings!
South Point owner Michael Gaughan's take on 'Vegas Stripped': 'I'll give it an 8' (3 Comments)
Author relishes writing the life story of ‘larger-than-life’ Oscar Goodman (3 Comments)
Elsewhere
Landowner: All roads could lead to Uxbridge casino
Revel reveals smoke-free casino opening
Cirque du Soleil show in Sands China casino to close this month
Meet the woman behind Sheldon Adelson
The Sun
Locally owned and independent for more than 50 years.



Mexicans ripping off Mexicans in America, go figure...LOL...
Who said they were mexicans....And dont say look at their names cause I would bet they are not mexican...
I bet you they are Filipinos!
Good luck finding them.
TonyCrago. Typical leftist. So enlightened, so sensitive and so caring. Yet he can't come up with a coherent argument in favor of his position so he name calls. Disagree with the TonyCrago's of this country and you are a racist, homophobic, Xenophobic, a "moron," etc. Only they have a right to an opinion. Free speech only applies to those who think in lockstep with them. Pure nonsense!
It seems that once again "RACE" must become the standing issue by those on the left. LVFACTS101 has a great point insofar that if you cannot beat them logically with facts, smear them with hate and confuse the issue(is that not the correct tactic TonyCrago?). The issue here is that Three COMPLETE DOUCHE BAGS! took advantage of people who were in dire need of assitance, and were already grasping at straws to stave off loosing their homes, livelyhood, and everything else they have worked for. I just hope that the three perps get caught and receive their just deserves.
Apperdently some of you are missing the point that the home owners also were thinking that they could gain an upper hand on the bank by setting up a lien that would tie up their home in litigation instead of having it foreclosed on.
Naughty naughty!
And all the money they SCAMMED is now sitting 9,000 miles offshore under the recently formed corporation:
Mahubay Mortgage Company!
Major major mistake!
make 'em do the perp walk
"...prevent the legitimate lenders from foreclosing on the victims' properties, officials said."
Funny thing is most foreclosers are anything but "legitimate lenders" -- when put to the test many of them can't prove they are "the legitimate lenders."
Again, these "officials" won't go after the REAL scammers -- the big out-of-state institutions with multiple addresses, like DoucheBank, BofA, MERS, and their many parasites.
dan2548 -- another funny thing is I actually met Palalay and Medina a few months ago. They're Filipinos. You're outed as a bigot.
lvfacts101 -- from dictionary.com for "moron":
"--noun
"1. a person who is notably stupid or lacking in good judgment.
"2. Psychology . a person of borderline intelligence in a former classification of mental retardation, having an intelligence quotient of 50 to 69.
"Use moron in a Sentence
"See images of moron
"Search moron on the Web
"Compare feeble-minded."
Sounds more like TonyCrago used a description rather than the thoughtless slurs common to this bunch.
"The issue here is that Three COMPLETE DOUCHE BAGS! took advantage of people who were in dire need of assitance, and were already grasping at straws to stave off loosing their homes, livelyhood, and everything else they have worked for."
Mustang_Gunner -- you'd be great in a lynch mob. Don't have the facts? Make 'em up! Can't spell? Post it anyway and show everyone else how borderline-illiterate you are!
"...I sincerely believe, with you, that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies; and that principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale." -- Thomas Jefferson in his May 28, 1816, letter to John Taylor
"Apperdently [sic] some of you are missing the point that the home owners also were thinking that they could gain an upper hand on the bank by setting up a lien that would tie up their home in litigation instead of having it foreclosed on."
pmmart -- that's only one legitimate tactic of many available to homeowners. The purpose is to slow down the foreclosure process by clouding the title the fight it out in court.
"If you're going to take my house away from me, you better own the note." -- Joe Lents (who hasn't made a payment on his $1.5 million mortgage since 2002) in Bloomberg's 2/22/08 "Banks Lose to Deadbeat Homeowners as Loans Sold in Bonds Vanish"
KillerB...what is "loosing"?
skipper -- ask pmmart, not me. I just quoted him.
Anybody in forclosure would do well to find out if the original lender actually recorded the deed in their institutions name.Many lenders,when packageing them all up to sell as a security to wall street to sell off,in order to save time,they neglected to record the deeds in their name.Many people are finding this a very legal way to prevent forclosure.It gets me that the people in the story were willing to defraud the lender who defrauded them!Pisses me off that this same kind of story just happened a few days ago here. The conclusion;He only had to pay back half the money and got probation in the Phillipines.Good luck collecting on that.Have fun with your $30 grand you ripped off from the people here,sounds like you will be living it up there on probation ,e-mail me for tropical mixed drink resipies,I get them from criminal justice bullitins!
Also if u were an actual victim in this particular scam,If you don't find any recovery in the criminal courts,sue them in civil court for all the theft,The theft of stealing the possibility that u would be still be in your home making the payments.That was damages to u,be sure to add up the damages to the values to the whole area here too!I want my cut!Even if their broke now,they will still have to pay u when their not,probably right after they rip off the next guy!
Tonycrago-- What does what your saying have to do with people getting ripped off by someone...OK city incident is gone but not forgotten...Actually the only moronic thing that you said is everything you said...