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Saturday
Jan292005
Saturday, January 29, 2005 at 08:55AM
A Houston company has been
slapped with a $3.5 million judgment for defrauding hundreds of
Hispanic homeowners in Texas out of tens of thousands of dollars before
the company's owners fled the country, Texas Attorney General Greg
Abbott announced Tuesday. District Judge Adolph Canales also issued a
permanent injunction against City Mortgage Services Inc. and its
owners, Gustavo Duarte and Alfredo Mendez, preventing the company from
defrauding consumers through its debt-reduction service. Ruling in a
case filed by Abbott, the judge found City Mortgage violated the Texas
Deceptive Trade Practices Act and the Texas Home Solicitation Act, and
ordered the defendants to pay $3.3 million in civil penalties and
$210,000 in restitution for the affected consumers. According to the
court, City Mortgage, which had offices in Austin, Dallas, Fort Worth
and Houston, dispatched teams of door-to-door salespeople throughout
Hispanic neighborhoods to tout the company's debt-reduction service.
Allegedly, City Mortgage promised consumers it would save them
thousands of dollars by withdrawing money from their accounts and then
forwarding amounts to their mortgage holders that were larger than
their regular mortgage payments, thus reducing the time it took to pay
off the loans. The company, which the court says charged families $700
and $1,000 each to sign up for the service, failed to forward hundreds
of payments and instead pocketed the money, according to Abbott. City
Mortgage shut down abruptly in 2004, leaving consumers owing their
mortgage companies substantial amounts of money in missed payments and
late fees, according to Abbott. The owners fled the country and are
being sought. The judge's order also found City Mortgage failed to
inform consumers that its service was something the homeowners could do
themselves by dealing directly with their mortgage companies. [more]