The Florida Attorney General’s Office has filed a complaint against American Home Solutions Group, a now-defunct company in West Palm Beach that claimed to offer help to struggling homeowners who were seeking loan modifications. The company charged up-front fees to help homeowners reach agreements with their mortgage lenders, the complaint says, but the help was never provided.
Jeff George, the owner of American Home Solutions Group, and his family have been the targets of Attorney General investigations before. He and his brother own a number of South Florida pain clinics that were targeted in investigations of so-called “pill mills,” where recreational drug users are said to be able to easily obtain prescription pain medications from cooperative doctors. George’s father has also been arrested in the past for misuse of construction funds, according to WPBF 25 News in Palm Beach.
BBB Had Clues That Loan Modification Firm Was a Scam
Michael Galvin of the Better Business Bureau of Southeast Florida and the Caribbean told WPBF that American Home Solutions is only one company on a long list of those suspected of swindling desperate homeowners with false home foreclosure rescue and loan modification offers.
“This particular company had an ‘F’ [in the BBB’s grading system]. That is a flag,” he told reporters.
On November 19, the Federal Trade Commission prohibited all mortgage debt settlement firms from charging up-front fees because companies that did so were frequently accused of illegality.
Although the scams were widely reported in the media, many distressed homeowners still fell for them. Galvin says the swindles were often hard to detect.
“We have to put ourselves in the positions those families are in; they’re in times that are desperate. They’re in economic hardships,” he said. “So they’re vulnerable and these predators are on the sidelines, and they’re very professional, and they’re very good at what they do and they move in.”
George and the attorney who represented him in the pain clinic investigation could not be reached for comment on the allegations regarding American Home Solutions Group.
Source: WPBF 25 News, Palm Beach, “Loan Modification Company Targeted By Attorney General,” December 14, 2010