6 charged in $3.8M mortgage-fraud scheme

Six people have been charged in a mortgage-fraud scheme that federal prosecutors say took advantage of vulnerable homeowners and defrauded lenders of nearly $4 million.

The indictment in federal court in Philadelphia alleges the six New Jersey residents offered to help people save their homes from foreclosure but ultimately defrauded the homeowners and mortgage lenders between October 2006 and November 2009.

Those indicted on charges that include conspiracy to commit bank fraud and wire fraud are: 36-year-old Silver Buckman, of Cherry Hill; her parents, 69-year-old Vincent Foxworth and 63-year-old Cynthia Foxworth, of Turnersville; 52-year-old Danette Thomas, of Pennsauken; 44-year-old Byron White, of Pennsauken; and 46-year-old Franklin Busi, of Sicklerville.

Prosecutors say they told struggling homeowners that they could improve their credit, save their homes, or get them money through a lease-buyback program run by Buckman, who owned and operated Fresh Start Financial Services in Mount Laurel and also worked for American Home Lending and American One Mortgage.

The homeowners were told "investors" would temporarily refinance their homes and they would eventually be able to repurchase the homes, the indictment says. The owners were led to the believe they would retain the titles to their homes, equity from the homes would be placed into escrow accounts in their names and new mortgages would be paid from those escrow accounts, according to prosecutors.

The indictment lists 18 properties located from Philadelphia to Jersey City that were involved in the alleged scheme.

Buckman recruited her father, who is an experienced Realtor, and mother, and others to act as straw borrowers in the scheme, prosecutors said.

Buckman and Busi, one of her business associates, are accused of submitting false information about the straw borrowers to mortgage lenders.

The lenders then agreed to fund the loans, prosecutors said, but the money didn't go to the homeowners' escrow accounts.

Instead, the defendants allegedly distributed the funds among themselves, ultimately defrauding the lenders of $3.8 million.

The indictment says Buckman used the majority of the proceeds to pay fees owed to the straw borrowers, the straw borrowers' down payments, and her own personal expenses. Buckman used "only a fraction" of the money to pay the mortgages obtained by the straw borrowers, the indictment says, causing those loans to default.