The agency wins a court order shutting down a Santa Ana operation that charged struggling homeowners as much as $10,000 each to jointly sue mortgage firms.
The FTC said that at its request a judge this week shut down one of the alleged scams, a Santa Ana mortgage-relief operation headed by Sameer "Sammy" Lakhany, 31, of Chino Hills.
The operation — five companies and three websites controlled by Lakhany — took in more than $1 million from hundreds of consumers, according to an FTC lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Santa Ana.
His websites — HouseHoldRelief.org, FreeFedLoanMod.org and MyHomeSupport.org — were shut down on orders from U.S. District Judge Cormac J. Carney, who issued a temporary restraining order against the companies and froze their assets.
The websites, featuring republished news stories describing the mortgage industry's legal troubles, suggested that the operation was a nonprofit effort to help right wrongs suffered by borrowers, said FTC consumer protection attorney Mark L. Glassman.
Read the rest of the article at The Los Angeles Times
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