Howrey Sues Virginia Firm On Behalf Of Hispanic Victims Of “Mortgage Modification” Scam

Fairfax, Virginia, September 8, 2009... Howrey LLP recently filed 25 lawsuits in the Circuit Court for Fairfax County in a first wave of suits to recover for the damages suffered by a number of local families as a result of a mortgage modification scam.  Most of these victims are Hispanic and were targeted by Spanish-language advertising and marketing.  The firm anticipates filing over a hundred more suits.

The suits allege that The Shmuckler Group, Nova Key Financial, and their key executives defrauded these families by promising to help them modify their mortgages but then doing little or nothing after collecting thousands in upfront fees. In some cases clients were advised to withhold mortgage payments and in many cases, the houses were subsequently foreclosed upon.

“We have held several intake clinics for these defrauded homeowners,” said Martin Cunniff, the Howrey partner in charge of the overall matter, “and their stories are heartbreaking.  Many of these families were seeking the “American Dream” of home ownership but ran into a nightmare in the form of fraud and broken promises.  Besides losing their fee payments, the scam often led to foreclosure or suffering other adverse consequences, such as significant lowering of their credit rating,” Cunniff continued.

“We are determined to seek justice for our clients and given the nature of these cases, we will have to do so one case at a time.  Without pro bono representation from a large litigation firm like Howrey, these families would have no effective recourse,” Cunniff said.

Howrey conducted several intake clinics at the Casa Blanca restaurant in Manassas, Virginia to interview potential clients and determine the facts of each case.  A group of 40 partners and associates at the firm, plus many Spanish-speaking volunteers, have participated in the ongoing effort.

Howrey is handling these cases pro bono and is working closely with the Woodbridge Workers’ Committee and Legal Services of Northern Virginia to coordinate this massive effort.   

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