Mortgage Con Targeted Troubled Homeowners in Aurora Area: Feds

Two people from Oswego are wanted on charges stemming from a mortgage company swindle where homeowners were falsely promised that their homes would be saved from foreclosure.

Melvin T. Bell, 37, who goes by a number of aliases, including “Minister Bey” and “Sovereign King Bey,” and Monica Hernandez, 43, are wanted on warrants, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Chicago. Both were last known to live in Oswego. Hernandez is the cousin of Carlos Rayas, 39, who was arrested in the same investigation and pleaded not guilty on Tuesday.

The three face federal fraud charges and are accused of bilking about $220,000 from at least 54 homeowners in a mortgage relief fraud scene that preyed on Hispanic people living in or near Aurora, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. The scam, which involved promising troubled homeowners help in preventing foreclosure or in lowering their monthly payments that had lasted since 2011.

Bell and Hernandez are charged with four counts of mail fraud, while Rayas faces two counts of mail fraud, according to an indictment that was unsealed Tuesday. Feds are seeking forfeiture of about $220,000.

The defendants are accused of marketing a business called “Washington National Trust” that claimed to offer financial help to troubled homeowners and was backed by wealthy Native Americans exempt from laws, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Fees for the fake service ranged from $5,000 to $10,000 for each property. Washington National Trust was not licensed in Illinois to conduct loan modifications and couldn’t provide the services it claimed.

In exchange for homeowners transferring title of their homes to Washington National Trust, the company would pay off the mortgages, reduce what each homeowner owed by half and eliminate fees and property taxes, according the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

The large fees collected from the unsuspecting homeowners were used to fund the business and to pay off people, including Rayas, who referred homeowners, the indictment alleges.