Hillsborough: 5 guilty in homes scam

TAMPA - A federal jury found five Tampa residents guilty of scamming homeowners into selling their homes to avoid foreclosure, then profiting on the deal.

Brothers Ramzy and Kamal Moumneh, 37 and 38, were accused of siphoning more than $2-million in home equity from their victims in an elaborate scheme that billed itself as a way to save struggling homeowners.

According to court documents, the Moumnehs, along with Chuong X. Dam, 33, Demetrios J. Voiklis, 32, and Kimberly Brothers, 28, conspired under the name of First Hanover Mortgage Corp. to help homeowners facing foreclosure by having them sell their homes to straw buyers. The homeowners were told they could buy the homes back after making 12 monthly lease payments.

After each sale, the defendants obtained new mortgage loans in excess of the balance owed on the existing mortgage. They then paid off the old loan and funneled the excess money to companies owned by the Moumnehs and Dam.

The companies would then demand a payoff from the homeowner through what prosecutors called a "sham document" that they sent to Voiklis or Brothers, closing agents for the sales.

All the defendants were convicted of multiple counts of fraud and conspiracy and face potential prison sentences of more than 30 years. A sentencing date has not yet been set.

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by Howard	06/07/07 02:33 AM
Fact: The Gov't sux!They hold the power over all of us.They're capable of scaring u into perjury 2 help them win their ridiculous claim.2 million huh? NOT EVEN CLOSE MY FRIEND!!Now who's conspired 2 do what?Think about it be4 u pass judgement dkhd!

by Howard	06/07/07 02:28 AM
What about the people who got their homes back?Nobody wants 2 talk about them.What about the proof that the alleged victims did sign?What about the checks they cashed from closings 4 cash back or investor fees?Shhh...don't talk about all that!

by Howard	06/07/07 02:23 AM
Govt witnessses lied 1 after another.1 admitted she wanted to see what they could do for her & she had to do what she had 2 do!She might as well of stood there saying I'm lieing so I can get my house back or some $$ because I don't pay my bills!!

by Howard	06/07/07 02:20 AM
Mike,Get ur fax str8!Fraudulant mtgs for yrs?C'mon,those degenerate sellers knew darn well what they were signing.They're the schemers here!Always want something 4 nothing.Govt got them to lie by promising to help get $$ or their homes back.Thats it!

by Tammy	06/06/07 11:02 PM
my 2 cents, wasn't there but heard from a good source that all witnesses were pathically lieing and cold hard old fashioned evidenced proved innocences especially the 2 girls.scarry stuff when system fails like this. lawyers were best still lost?????

by Kory	05/31/07 12:36 AM
a bunch of hog wash lies by people that don't pay thier bills and blame others for their problems. They got their chance to throw their punches .. and the innoccent lost .. system is horrible.. somehow this needs to shown for reading to see the lies!

by Stanley	05/31/07 12:35 AM
A mortgage consists of numerous maybe 20 documents which can be forged ie appraisal, income, assets etc. a criminal will fake all such things but these folks screwed up on one thing, its a freakin mistake not crimmal intent 4 god sake.waste of money

by Winston	05/17/07 08:50 PM
For all you that want to crap on the defendents get a clue, the system does not always work and what you read in the paper is what they want you to read, nothing concerning the truth. Do you believe everything u read? Everything the GOV tells you?!!!

by Rob	05/04/07 10:56 AM
Let me guess.. another embarrassed witness that got caught lieing in court..i've worked for geoject since 2003, this company is good! There products are better than any other co like earthtech, lre or cfi. we've have repaired their failures for years

by Mike	05/02/07 02:32 PM
This is just the tip of the iceberg for these guys. These guys have been creating fraudulent mortgages for years, bilking lenders out of literally millions of dollars. They are also the owners of a sinkhole repair company named GEOJECT beware

by craig	04/30/07 08:23 PM
ha, i dated one of the defendents in this case.... hahahaha,justice was served

by Steve	04/22/07 11:28 PM
jury deliberated for 5 hours only, they basically ignored 2 months of solid defense evidence because they just wanted to get the heck out of there, how is that justice??? good people's lives have been wrongly crushed...just not fair!

by Steve	04/22/07 11:15 PM
to continue,what made this case unbelievable unless you were there,is that the govt knew these homeowners were going to lie on the stand and they let it happen, any doubt?read the transcripts. Agree about the judge,the best,hope he is easy on them...

by Steve	04/22/07 11:02 PM
Yep, I saw that too about the 43% success rate, consider this..BK rates are 33%, fcl rates are 39%, so 43% is a darn good. what stood out too was that all govt witnesses were all folks that didn't pay their mortgages and then rent, so they blame them

by dave	04/22/07 01:06 AM
Forgot tosay,Judge Whitemore is an impressive figure, one of the smartest and fairest judges in the nation.He knows this case better than all us posters combined.He has discretion in sentencing, if like me, you saw something wrong,he surely would too

by dave	04/22/07 12:59 AM
Followup:gvt was right saying some were not owner occ.Defense argued that bank reps instructed them.But the point is the 2 mil story is outrageous. They did a foreclosure program with a 43% success rate of buybacks.The gvt says thats fraud. Its not.

by Sara	04/21/07 07:21 PM
So the gov witness's lied under oath, the documents were all signed by the correct people and we have 5 people facing jail. I pray and believe that the Judge will see this injustice, for this is the USA and why we are here. right???

by Bill	04/20/07 04:41 PM
I watched some not all. The defendants were accused of forging signatures. Eash witness that claimed the signitures were not theirs eventually agreed it was their signature -yes they did lie under oath. The defendants made shrewed deals not fraud.

by Martin	04/19/07 11:28 PM
I thought that cases are won or lost with DNA. In this case all the DNA "documents" confirmed that ALL prosecuter's witness fibbed, and not small stuff either, big giant fibs ... hope this weighs heavy on the jury's conscience... doubt it will, KARMA

by Dave	04/19/07 10:35 PM
I know someone who works at the courthouse and the true crime here was falsifying owner occs not stealing equity from people.The title people were supposed to be witnesses not defendants.Homeowners blamed everyone but themselves.11 months nopmts?cmon

by Joe	04/19/07 07:36 AM
Wow, I was there and I am VERY affraid of what a "Fair GOV" would do for anyone. Twisting of the facts, witnesses of the GOV lied(and were caught in the act), and supressing of evidence. If these guys were crooks, Haliburton,help.Where do live again?

by Kevin	04/19/07 12:17 AM
Totaly Noooooot Guilty ... if they are guilty for this stuff, then every investor in Tampa should be indicted, un..freakin..believable .. Feel so bad for them..they've helped lots of people, good to thier employees and a great company to work for !

by AJ	04/19/07 12:06 AM
The wrongly convicted ought to post the court transcripts on the internet so the whole world can read and see the travesty that took place in court. Lives have been destroyed while gov sponsored perjury is alive and well. They stood no chance, sorry!

by Laura	04/18/07 11:53 PM
Guess they should have had the trial by the judge and not the jury, who by the way was a brilliantly fair judge. Because we have the best justice system, you hope that the guilty are convicted and the innoccent are set free. Lives have been destroyed

by Arthur	04/18/07 03:29 PM
We should all be very freightned of our Government. The term railroaded applies here. Every Gov't witness was schooled to lie under oath. This verdict is not right and as citizens we need to be vocal about this. This jury was incompetent.

by Jeffrey	04/17/07 01:15 PM
Lastly...the saying "innocent until proven guilty" certainly doesn't seem to apply when defending yourself against the GOV.It should be...you're guily, now prove your innocence.What a terrible injustice in the greatest country in the world.Embarrased

by Jeffrey	04/17/07 01:01 PM
What happened to "don't believe everything you read?"The paper truely gives their dramatic,distorted prospective.Learn the facts people.Every GOV witness lied under oath.Not to mention peoples' lives changed while jury members slept, literally.

by Kerry	04/16/07 05:32 PM
I watched the trial also. At first I thought they may be guilty. But after I watched the GOV witnesses lie under oath, it was apparant that they weren't guilty. The verdict shocked everyone in court. That was NOT justice! GOV railroading at work.

by Domonic	04/03/07 12:58 AM
I watched the trial, I couldn't believe it, gov witnesses all got caught lieing under oath, docs after docs was shown by the defense to prove perjury was being committed in Federal Court. I've been to trials but I've never seen this before terrible

by HereToStay	03/31/07 10:40 PM
Step-up and continue the Fed sweeps! Many scheisters filling up the state again.

by mikey	03/31/07 01:43 PM
I doubt if there are any innocent victims here.These folks knew what they were doing and the Title Insurance people are just as guilty as anyone else.

by david	03/31/07 09:27 AM
From what i know some people in this case were pawns in the matter. This is one of those cases were there is guilt by association.The main culprets were truly guilty but 2 others were not.This is a true case of inoccent people being found guilty!!!!

by Gilbert	03/31/07 06:25 AM
Can the victims be compensated, by victim witness? Can thier credit ratings be restored? Can they sue these crooks? Some folks chose to make an honest living and some folks chose to make a dishobest living, for the latter it is called prison! THIEF!

by Charles	03/30/07 08:06 PM
There is no such thing as the get rich quick method. Eventually they would have been caught.

by CONCETTA	03/30/07 04:18 PM
WOW. It seems that a lot of thought went into that scheme. It is ashame that these schemers don't use their intellegence to earn a true living instead of frauding desperate people. Live in prison in my book.