Apply 2 Save Shuts Down

You may remember Apply 2 Save, Inc.  from my 20 Worst Modification List back in March.  

The IRS and the state of Idaho put the final nails in their coffin last week.   The IRS filed four tax liens for over $663,000 for unpaid 2008 federal unemployment and income taxes.  The state of Idaho filed a $52,000 lien for upaid withholding tax.

Idaho Attorney General Lawrence Wasden, who had already filed a consumer protection complaint against Apply 2 Save and it’s president, Derek Oberholtzer last month amended his complaint claiming the company preyed on desperate homeowners.  By Thursday of last week, Apply 2 Save’s website and telephones were shut down.  In another move that is predictable by companies like this, the final paychecks for their employees all bounced.

Apocalypse Moe: Moe and His Minions Assemble Internet Legion of Doom

Moe Bedard, the former operator of the illegally-run company, Loan Safe Solutions, announced today that he was starting a team of former shady loan modification companies to create an Internet Legion of Doom.  With delusions of being Lex Luthor, Moe plans on recruiting minions to begin a campaign of retaliation for the unflattering article that I wrote about him last week.

I received an email message in an email account that only Moe and a handful of other people have. The spelling errors and writing style are similar to messages in other email threats that I’ve received from him. Below is the series of emails I received announcing the launch:

From: Shark Hunter <loanmodificationscams@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, May 16, 2009 at 12:40 PM
Subject: STEVE THE SCUMBAG WILL BE EXPOSED FOR THE SLIME HE IS
To: g************@gmail.com

WE HAVE ASSEMBLED A TEAM OF PEOPLE YOU HAVE SCAMMED AND WILL TAKE YOU DOWN. IT SEEMS LIKE YOU ARE PICKING BONES WITH OTHERS OUT THERE AND WE WILL MAKE SURE TO GET THEM ON OUR TEAM TO TAKE YOUR ASS DOWN.

You are a f***en predatory lending bullshit artist parading around as some home saver now. You will be annihilated for your pathetic internet antics and holier than thou attitude. You have barked up the wrong tree too many times and you WILL NOW be exposed for the scumbag you are.

I have employed a full time team of bloggers and will start hundreds of blogs about you and your crap company to teach your sad a** a lesson about how things are done on the internet.  You pathetic lonely ugly man……..

We hope you have time to take up the fight your started because we are going to fight till the end or you waive your little p***y flag when we crush you and your company in the search engines….. It is happening right now and you cant even see it..LMAO

In the second email:

Shark Hunter <loanmodificationscams@gmail.com>
toSteve Dibert <g************@gmail.com>
dateSat, May 16, 2009 at 2:22 PM
subjectRe: STEVE THE SCUMBAG WILL BE EXPOSED FOR THE SLIME HE IS
mailed-bygmail.com

just watch for the hundreds of blogs coming you way..hope you have time to SEO, counter attack and pay your bills jackoff. LOL

by the time we are done with you, everyone will know the truth about you and your sham company. you’ll be there on your kitchen table scratching your head and balls, wishing you just would have shut your gaping asshole of a mouth.

You will then have all the time in the world when we are done with you to blog, lie, cheat and steal……..

In the third email, he claims he’s the King of SEO just like he claimed he was a Fraud Fighter:

Shark Hunter <loanmodificationscams@gmail.com>

toSteve Dibert <g************@gmail.com>
dateSat, May 16, 2009 at 2:22 PM
subjectRe: STEVE THE SCUMBAG WILL BE EXPOSED FOR THE SLIME HE IS
mailed-bygmail.com

ummmmm…This is Not Moe here. You can bet you will be the one doomed fool….

again maybe your father didn’t teach your sorry ass about the ways of the world, pick fights you can win and run from ones you can’t!!!!!!!

your a grade A bonehead and the world will know now that you were slinging predatory hard money loans just this last year and you are one of the scums who perpetuated our current crisis by preying on vulnerable homeowners with bad credit. Now they are losing their homes you PIG.

YOU ARE SCUM AND THE WORLD WILL KNOW. PLAIN AND SIMPLE STEVE DOOMBERT. HAHAHAHAHAHA

We will work with Moe (THE KING OF SEO) and post about you and your sham company this week on his blog if he lets us. From what I just read, I am sure he will be happy to use his blogs to expose your sorry and lonely predatory hairy ass!!!!!

Too shay!!!

Another giveaway that it’s Moe who is writing the email messages is his claim that I did predatory loans, which is not true.  Here’s a threat he made on April 28, 2009:

fromMoe <moe@loansafe.org>

toSteve Dibert <g*********@gmail.com>
dateTue, Apr 28, 2009 at 10:07 AM
subjectRe: YOUR WEBSITE IS STILL ACTIVE
mailed-bygmail.com

I am not worrid about anything and know ALL THE BS you have done and said on the internet, to reporters, emails etc, you flaming idiot.

you wrere a predatory hard money lender and that is MORE THAN THE TRUTH SCUM BAG!!!

I guess this is what happens when convicted felons and drug addicts descend into madness.

New Software Automates Loan Modification Applications

Compliance Consulting Corporation has just released Modification Assistant, a new software program that simplifies the preparation of loan modification applications.

Modification Assistant contains a modification calculator and all the standard documents required on loan modifications, including the borrower’s authorization, loan summary, financial needs analysis, and an affidavit of hardship.

The modification calendar is a key feature. It analyzes the borrower’s current financial situation and generates proposed terms for presentation to the lender. Modification Assistant uses these terms to create a detailed executive summary containing strong reasoning in favor of modifying loan terms.

“Every professional modification application package should contain an executive summary of the borrower’s financial situation, proposed terms, a current valuation of the property, and the potential benefit or loss to the lender,” says Christopher Lovell, Executive Vice President of Compliance Consulting Corporation. “We have found that many talented modification specialists hit a wall when trying to craft the executive summary.”

Modification Assistant automates the process of creating an executive summary, summarizing information that mortgage professionals enter when using the program. These professional can evaluate the program by downloading a free, limited-use version from the Compliance Consulting Corporation website, www.complianceconsultingcorp.com.

For more information about Modification Assistant, please call 561-586-3645.

Mass AG Makes $50M Home Rescue Pact

AG: Wall St. giant to cut loan amounts, payments

Under the terms of the agreement, Goldman will reduce the principal of 714 first mortgages they hold (or service) by up to 30 percent and reduce second-mortgage amounts by 50 percent or more. This will allow borrowers to replace ….

Read the rest of the article here:

http://www.bostonherald.com/business/real_estate/view.bg?articleid=1171679&srvc=business&position=0

There Are Only So Many Ways You Can Repackage The Same BS

Exclusive to MFI-Mod Squad – Media Must Cite MFI-Mod Squad as source!

MFi-Mod Squad got word today that the Hutchinson Brothers from Peoples First Financial have reinvented themselves yet again.  This time they are passing themselves off as attorneys.  Several weeks ago, they opened up as the Pacific Legal Firm but they answer the old PFF email accounts and phones.  My source in San Diego received the following response from them after filling out an application on the old PFF website:

Thank you taking the time to apply online for help with your mortgage. I’m sending you this email because you appear to be an excellent candidate for mortgage assistance through Loan Modification, a program which can lower your interest rate and keep you out of default on your mortgage payment.

Pacific Legal Firm is a premier mitigation company that processes over 300 loan modifications per month. On average, we’ve been able to obtain a 4% – 6% interest rate for mortgages that were 7% – 10% or higher.  Our clients are people who are either struggling to make their mortgage payment, trying to refinance, have low or negative home equity, high debt to income ratio or have had a hardship that has negatively impacted your income.  If you fall into one or more of these categories, loan modification is most likely your best option.

Loan Modification has many benefits for homeowners –
1)     The mortgage will be brought back to current if you are behind on the payment.
2)     If you have bad credit, it doesn’t matter – credit score is NOT a factor in loan modification.
3)     Your interest rate will be significantly reduced.
4)     Your payment will be reduced – on average we lower clients’ payment $300-$800 per month.
5)     Thousands of clients have avoided foreclosure and bankruptcy through loan modification.

Modification is a relatively new process born out of this recession, and banks are only modifying mortgages for a limited time until they start making money again. Thus, it is important you explore your options as quickly as possible if you do need help with your mortgage.

If you would like to discuss your situation with me, you can reach me at 866-781-0727  and I’ll walk you through the application process. Or, if want to go ahead and see whether you qualify, we have a 10 minute free application to help you determine if you qualify for this process.  I’ll be happy to forward the application upon your request.

Warmly,
866-781-0727
Pacific Legal Firm
9528 Mirimar Rd. Suite 226
San Diego, CA 92126

The Hutchinson Brothers are so paranoid about their employees talking to me.  They have ordered them to be very “tight lipped” with any company info.  They also refuse to have a copy machine or printer in the sales office for the staff for fear an employee will print something damaging about the company and leave.

Guys, it’s time to throw in the towel on your schemes and go back to working landscaping because you make lousy white collar criminals!

Attorney General Sues Orlando Loan Modification Company for Foreclosure Fraud

Attorney General Bill McCollum today announced that his office has filed a lawsuit against an Orlando loan modification company alleging the company was committing foreclosure rescue fraud. Three Angels Community Action Network and company president Sherrard A. Haugabrooks are named in the lawsuit filed today in Seminole County Circuit Court. The lawsuit specifically alleges violations of Florida’s Foreclosure Rescue Law, §501.1377.

Members of the Attorney General’s Economic Crimes Division, working as part of the Attorney General’s Mortgage Fraud Task Force, began investigating Three Angels Community Action Network in February 2009.  Read more about foreclosure fraud…

MFI-Mod Squad

MFI-Mod Squad is the only privately funded loan modification investigative firm in the United States. The goal of MFI-Mod Squad is to expose illegally run loan modification companies and the people who run them. These firms convince desperate homeowners to pay them huge upfront fees by making fanciful promises when their real intent is to take the homeowner’s money and run.

Many of these companies operate illegally by doing business in states that have not adapted their laws to include loan modifications. They solicit clients in states outside their own.

This is done intentionally because they know a homeowner facing foreclosure does not have the funds to pursue them across state lines or in federal court. In other words, they think they’re smarter than you.

MFI-Mod Squad has three purposes.

The first purpose is to give homeowners a place on the Internet where they can educate themselves about loan modifications and loan modification companies so they can protect themselves from taken advantage of.

Second, give homeowners a place where they can get help investigating unscrupulous loan modification companies.

Third, expose these unscrupulous companies and use the power of the Internet to shut them down.

Not all loan modification companies are bad or are breaking the law. There are good ones that work hard for their clients, play by the rules and are just as eager to force these people out of the industry as MFI-Mod Squad. They will be promoted on this site and will be encouraged to contribute.

Feel free to email me at
steve@mfi-modsquad.com.

Would You Hire This Guy to do Your Loan Mod?

Since I started this site at the end of January, people in the media have been asking me what inspired me to create MFI-Mod Squad.  I’ve been telling them that it was an offshoot of MFI-Miami. I’ve kept quiet about the person who served as the inspiration. Quite honestly, I don’t have time for this person’s immature threats and Wagnerian theatrics.

That’s right. Maurice Clement Bedard, aka Moe Bedard , of Loan Safe Solutions was the inspiration for MFI-Mod Squad. Why is Moe the inspiration?  Well, back in August, it was discovered that Moe had a dirty little secret he wasn’t sharing with the public. This secret contradicted his image as the champion of the little guy. This secret became known within the modification and lending industry but has not been widely circulated to the general public or to the mainstream media. Those he couldn’t bully just didn’t want the headache of dealing with him.

According to the California Superior Court in Orange County, on December 20, 1995, Moe was arrested and charged with marijuana possession and sale or transport of marijuana. He pled guilty to both charges on March 14, 1996.

As if Moe didn’t learn his lesson the first time, on 1/2/2003, the California Superior Court in Riverside County found him guilty of “felony possession of marijuana for sale.” The companion charges of cultivating marijuana and abuse and endangerment of a child were dismissed by the court.  Six weeks later, in Riverside County Superior Court, Moe was found guilty of “battery on spouse/cohabitant.”

Apparently, Moe didn’t get the hint that beating women was not acceptable behavior in our society. Six months later, on August 26, 2004, Moe was found guilty of “corporal injury on spouse/cohabitant.” This was a felony. The companion charge of assault with a deadly weapon was dismissed.

On November 23, 2004, Moe was sentenced to two years in prison (less 66 days time served) and was transported to the California Rehabilitation Center in Norco, CA.

While at Norco, Moe’s DRE license (#1237996) was permanently revoked for, as the DRE put it, “moral turpitude.” What is moral turpitude? It is conduct that’s considered contrary to community standards of justice, honesty, or good morals.

When Moe was released from prison, he didn’t let small problems like felony convictions and lack of a DRE license stop him from getting back into the mortgage business. Being a crafty felon, he used his Internet skills to begin developing the concept for Loan Safe Solutions.

By the spring of 2007, the mortgage industry was heading into a tail spin, and Moe pitched the idea of Loan Safe Solutions to his former boss, Tony Salaszar, at Consumer Direct Lending. Both of them reached a private agreement.

In order to give the new company some credibility, they used one of Tony Salaszar’s dormant companies —Empire Marketing— and changed the name to Loan Safe Solutions. This was done in case anyone checked with the state of California and as a safeguard against Moe’s criminal past ever becoming an issue with DRE. Loan Safe Solutions would rent the space and equipment in the building that was already owned by Tony Salaszar. In return, Moe would own a majority share of Loan Safe Solutions off the books.

Loan Safe Solutions began Loansafe.org as a marketing tool for the new company. Although Moe advertised it as a “not-for-profit,” it was hardly a charity. It sold advertising space exclusively to  a “selected” attorney to whom Loan Safe would then refer all their clients.

Loan Safe Solutions didn’t solicit clients for themselves or the law firms. Clients came to the company via the Internet. So, the company was able to sidestep the California Business and Professions Code, which prohibits non-law firms from soliciting for law firms. However, Moe Bedard and Tony Salaszar may have broken the law. How? Well, a piece of every retainer fee collected by the advertising law firm from leads from the Loansafe.org site was paid to Loan Safe Solutions.

To further isolate himself from any liability, Moe began what was known as the “affiliate” program.  An affiliate was a third party who collected the upfront fees for the law firm and Loan Safe Solutions. The consumer would pay the affiliate $4000, and the affiliate would then pay Loan Safe Solutions between $2500 and $3000 in processing fees. The amount that was paid was determined by the agreement between the affiliate and Loan Safe Solutions. This put all the liability on the third-party salesman if Moe or the attorney failed to get the client a loan modification.

In the summer of 2008, two things happened that ended this practice. First, word began circulating in the mortgage industry about Moe’s felony convictions. Secondly, the California DRE began regulating loan modifications and who could provide them. DRE began requiring that modification companies be licensed under DRE. The DRE also required modification companies to obtain special approval to charge upfront fees.

Being a crafty little devil, Moe devised a scheme. In the scheme, he changed his client agreements to be legal retainer agreements for his selected attorney and gave the attorney a 150-square foot office within the 6000-square foot Loan Safe Solutions suite. Both Loan Safe Solutions and the attorney would share staff and equipment.   The attorney would then pay Loan Safe a marketing fee, a monthly fee, and a per-file processing fee.   All the sales people worked on contract with the law firm. The phones were even answered by Loan Safe Solutions staffers.

However, when Moe would fire the selected attorneyor the attorney voluntarily terminated the relationship, the staff would stay for the next firm. It was commonly known that Moe was calling the shots and that the attorneys were just figureheads. Loan Safe Solutions became a revolving door of attorneys. Within the past year, the company has had four firms come and go, yet the attorneys’ employees all stayed in the office.

According to my source, the attorneys were only involved in 30-50% of the cases that came into Loan Safe Solutions, although all the clients signed retainer agreements. The only time that the attorney ever spoke to a client was after Loan Safe Solutions negotiated a loan modification with a lender and sent out letters on the attorney’s letterhead.

Attorneys would get complaints from clients and from the State Bar of California.  However, after questioning Moe, Moe would fire the attorneys. He knew that if the attorneys went to the state of California, they would have to implicate themselves in order rat him out. Due to Moe’s erratic and abusive behavior, the attorneys left quietly. They weren’t willing to ruin their legal practices.

In January 2009, Moe fired the CEO of Loan Safe Solutions, his friend, Tony Salaszar. Tony is the same guy who gave Moe a second chance after Moe got out of prison. Moe was supposed to pay Tony a sepearation package.  However, Moe stopped paying Tony in March.

Apparently, Tony Salaszar wasn’t the only person Moe wasn’t paying.  On May 4th, Moe found the Loan Safe Solutions office locked with an eviction notice on the door.  The new property owner wasn’t going to be as lenient as Tony Salaszar.  Unfortunately, this is not good news for the 500+ paid clients whose files were locked inside the office.  Their modifications more than likely will never get done and the clients are out thousands of dollars.

During the first week of April 2009, Moe announced to his employees that he was selling Loan Safe Solutions.  There was a problem with this announcement. It’s unlikely that anyone would want to buy an illegally run loan modification company. There also may be a lawsuit pending against Loan Safe Solutions for copyright infringement.

At the end of 2008, First American Title filed a cease and desist  for a copyright infringement against Loan Safe Solutions. First American has a division called Corelogic, which has a product on the market called Loansafe 2.0.  Apparently, Moe didn’t bother to check with the U.S. Patent Office before he started using the name.

Knowing the end was near with Loan Safe Solutions, Moe started a new business called Moeseo. Once again, he uses the skills he learned with the help of liberal taxpayers from California. This time, he has created a website and a set of Internet marketing tools for law firms that want to perform loan modifications.

Moe brags that the site, Modifyloan.net, was created for a specific law firm in February of 2009 and has had nearly 5,300 visitors in 11 days. However, Moe stretched the truth on this one. Modifyloan.net is not a dedicated website for that specific law firm, and it isn’t a new website. The domain name, Modifyloan.net, is owned by MHloan Pro, which is owned by Moe Bedard. Modifyloan.net was an active domain name and website 12 months prior and was in daily use as late as April 2008.

What will Moe do after reading this? Oh, he’ll threaten to sue me. He’ll create bogus WordPress blogs about me, try to spread lies about me on the Internet, tell people I’m slandering his good name and have the Internet version of a temper tantrum. He’s done it all before.

Loan Safe Solutions has been evicted and locked out of their offices.

An inside source tells me they have been locked out of their offices as of yesterday.  Apparently, they have been evicted for not paying their rent for 3 months.  My source also tells me that employees have no access to the office or client files.  I will have a full in-depth story about Moe and Loan Safe tomorrow.   Stay tuned!

Class Action Suits Are On The Way Against Illegal Mod Companies in California

Fox11 in LA aired a piece about this earlier this week. Click here to watch it.