The former vice president of a Dallas housing counseling agency admitted in court this week that he engaged in a scheme to defraud struggling homeowners, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and several banks out of more than $610,000.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas, Francisco Javier Gonzalez pleaded guilty on Tuesday to one count of mail fraud stemming from his work at the Dallas County Community Action Committee, a HUD-approved housing counseling agency.
Court documents showed that the Dallas County Community Action Committee accredited by HUD between October 1990 and mid- February 2016, to provide housing counseling.
Gonzalez served as the non-profit’s vice president and one of its directors, and leased space in the DCCAC offices for another entity, Residential Counseling FJ.
According to documents filed in the case, between 2009 through 2016, Gonzalez used his position at DCCAC to defraud homeowners under the premise that he was assisting them with foreclosure prevention.
Court documents showed that Gonzalez specifically targeted victims who were facing financial difficulty and who contacted the DCCAC for mortgage and foreclosure prevention assistance.
Gonzalez also identified victims by subscribing to the Foreclosure Listing Service, which is also known as Roddy List. The list provides listings of foreclosure and pre-foreclosure homes on county basis using public records.
Once identified, Gonzalez would meet his targets in the DCCAC offices and in their homes.
Court documents show that Gonzalez would then present the borrowers with a plan to reduce their mortgage payment and to prevent foreclosure, which often included a loan modification application.
But, the applications in question contained information that Gonzalez falsified and were otherwise incomplete.
Court documents also showed that on Feb. 28, 2013, Gonzalez prepared and submitted a false and fraudulent Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act application to a bank in an effort to delay foreclosure and extract additional money from his victims.
As a result of Gonzalez’s scheme to defraud homeowners, the HUD and “certain banks” suffered a loss of $611,740.55, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
Gonzalez faces a maximum sentence of 20 years and a $250,000 fine.
