AG Reaches Agreed Judgment with Mortgage Rescue Company
Already outraged homeowners are now furious with the Texas Attorney General’s office for going easy on two brothers FOX 4 found running a mortgage rescue company. They were supposed to be helping struggling homeowners but the brothers were accused of helping themselves instead. The two faced enormous penalties but that’s not what happened when it was all said and done... FOX 4 wondered how the restitution would be divided and how the Attorney General decided on $25,000.00. We also wanted to know why $90,000.00 of the $110,000.00 penalty was abated. Since no one from the Attorney General’s office would sit down with us and answer our questions on camera, we caught up with assistant attorney general, Andrew Leonie in Dallas. Leonie worked on the Bailey brothers’ case. He just happened to be speaking at a summit on combating loan scams. The media was invited.

AG Reaches Agreed Judgment with Mortgage Rescue Company
Becky Oliver
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DALLAS - Already outraged homeowners are now furious with the Texas Attorney General’s office for going easy on two brothers FOX 4 found running a mortgage rescue company. They were supposed to be helping struggling homeowners but the brothers were accused of helping themselves instead. The two faced enormous penalties but that’s not what happened when it was all said and done.

Annie Haynes has little more than some clothes left of her American dream. She lost her house to foreclosure along with everything in it.

’We came home and the house was empty. No notification or nothing. Everything was gone,’ said Haynes.

The 40 year old, disabled woman now lives with her mother and sleeps on the sofa.

Haynes says she trusted Markus Bailey and his company, Behind On Mortgage. Haynes paid Bailey $971.00 to stop her foreclosure. He didn’t. So, Haynes complained to the Texas Attorney General. Now she is angry the State ordered Markus and Tyrone Bailey to pay just $25,000.00 total in consumer restitution.

’That is ridiculous,’ said Haynes. ’That is pennies compared to what we lost. I would never pay back what we lost.’

Last year, FOX 4 went undercover with a homeowner who volunteered to help. Markus Bailey came to her home and said he could stop her foreclosure in three days but it would cost $2,700.00. Bailey told the homeowner it was a one-time processing fee of one mortgage payment. Bailey later denied asking for money up-front when FOX 4 confronted him outside the home.

’We don’t take money,’ Bailey told FOX 4’s Becky Oliver. ’We are not a fraud company.’

Markus Bailey’s criminal record shows he’s a registered sex offender.

Weeks after our story aired, the Texas Department of Savings and Mortgage Lending issued a cease-and-desist order to Markus and Tyrone Bailey. The State said the duo performed no meaningful services.  Weeks later FOX 4 reported the Attorney General's enforcement action against the brothers.

But in the state's agreed final judgment , the brothers did not admit any liability, any violation of law or wrongdoing. It states they agreed "to buy the peace.’

The Bailey’s were ordered to pay $110,000 in civil penalties. Sounds pretty tough, right? But the Attorney General abated $90,000.00 of the penalties as long as the Bailey brothers don’t violate the order over the next 10 years.

So, the Bailey brothers have to cough up $20,00.00 in civil penalties, $15,000.00 in attorney fees, and the $25,000.00 in total restitution.

’It used to be the American dream to own a home,’ said Bessie Sanders. ’Now it’s the American nightmare.’

Sanders is now raising her grandkids in an apartment with boxes stacked everywhere. In a complaint to the Attorney General’s office she says she and her son paid Tyrone Bailey $1,700.00 to help get a loan modification on her home. It never happened. The bank foreclosed and she lost the house.

’I was devastated’still devastated’traumatized, too,’ Sanders told FOX 4.
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Sanders thinks the agreed order sends the wrong message. She’s angry it didn’t have more teeth.

’Let them suffer and go through what they put the victims through and maybe this could be a wake-up call for them,’ said Sanders. Sanders doesn’t know if she will receive any restitution.

The Attorney General’s office sent out more than 100 letters to potentially eligible consumers. FOX 4 talked to many of them.

Kerri Banks paid Tyrone Bailey $2,400.00. She told the Attorney General office Bailey did nothing.

Glenda Pogue paid Tyrone Bailey $1,300.00 to stop her foreclosure. She too lost her home.

FOX 4 wondered how the restitution would be divided and how the Attorney General decided on $25,000.00. We also wanted to know why $90,000.00 of the $110,000.00 penalty was abated. Since no one from the Attorney General’s office would sit down with us and answer our questions on camera, we caught up with assistant attorney general, Andrew Leonie in Dallas. Leonie worked on the Bailey brothers’ case. He just happened to be speaking at a summit on combating loan scams. The media was invited.

"What I wonder is why you guys want us to show up at a conference like this, which we call the dog and pony shows and yet when it comes to the tough questions and sitting down and answering our questions all of a sudden the AG's office has tape over your mouth. Why is that’ Becky Oliver asked Leonie.

’All I can say to you is that it has always been the policy of the Attorney General's office that any inquiries from the media be routed through our press office,’ Leonie responded. ’That has always been the policy of the Attorney General.’

’And when we ask to speak with specific people we hear over and over again, there is no one who can address your questions,’ said Oliver.

’I can’t address that,’ said Leonie.

Annie Haynes got a letter from the Attorney General’s office about a possible, partial refund coming from that restitution fund. But the letter warns it could take months. Haynes isn’t counting on it and says the whole process has been frustrating and disappointing.

’You should be able to go to your state and get the help you need’for me and the little people,’ said Haynes. ’Where is the justice?’ she asked. ’There isn’t any,’ Haynes continued.

The Bailey brothers’ attorney says they agreed to the order because they didn’t have the money to fight the state. He also says they had lots of clients who were happy with their services.

Jerry Strickland, spokesman for the Attorney General's office issued this statement to FOX 4:

"We've recovered more than $30 million in restitution for affected homeowners, obtained more than 150 years in prison sentences for criminal mortgage fraud, and shut down nine loan modification and foreclosure rescue companies. We will continue protecting Texas homeowners by taking legal action against businesses that harm hard working Texas homeowners."

http://www.myfoxdfw.com/dpp/news/investigative/091410AG-Reaches-Agreed-Judgment-with-Mortgage-Rescue-Company-