Tuesday, June 15, 2010 | 4:20 p.m.
A 50-year-old Henderson man who preyed on Las Vegas area homeowners facing foreclosures in 2007 and 2008 is going to prison.
Jeffery Tye Brown, who operated DB Financial Services, a Henderson foreclosure rescue business, has been sentenced to serve from 12 to 30 months for felony mortgage fraud by Clark Country District Court Judge Kenneth E. Cory.
“I am hopeful that prison sentences such as the one imposed in this case will be a further deterrent to would-be scammers who prey on those in need,” Nevada Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto said in a prepared statement.
The state’s case against Brown was based on an investigation by the attorney general’s mortgage fraud task force.
Prosecutors charged Brown with submitting false loan applications to lenders that inflated his victims' incomes to demonstrate a better financial condition or ability to pay a monthly mortgage. In other cases, he misled customers into believing that, for a fee, he would guarantee resolution of a pending mortgage foreclosure.
The task force found that between December 2007 and February 2008, Brown contacted victims whose homes were going into foreclosure and obtained advance payments up to $999 for foreclosure rescue services that he never performed.
The task force also found Brown failed to give refunds despite promising refunds in his contracts and advertising. He also forged documents to the state's Mortgage Lending Division to cover up the criminal activity.
Shortly after the mortgage fraud task force executed a search warrant in 2008 on the DB Financial offices, Brown fled the country.
In February he was extradited back to the U.S. from the Philippines, where he was in hiding to evade authorities.
Brown had been charged with multiple felony theft counts, but agreed to plead guilty to a charge of felony mortgage fraud.
The plea agreement requires Brown to forfeit funds seized from his company to pay for the $7,046 in costs of his extradition from the Philippines.
Brown was also ordered to sign civil confessions of the judgment agreeing to provide restitution to the victims for $23,685.
Brown will receive credit for the time he has served since his arrest.
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