DETROIT – A 39-year-old Birmingham man is facing 35 felony charges for allegedly stealing money from people who were facing mortgage foreclosures or credit card debt and had turned to his company for help.
Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette said Thursday that Pasquale Longordo and his company Modify Loan Experts, LLC, used client's money "like a personal bank account."
Schuette said Longordo and his company allegedly promised the victims that they would have an attorney assigned to represent them and negotiate mortgage modifications on their behalf with mortgage companies. However, that did not happen and many victims lost their homes as a result, Schuette said.
Additionally, Longordo, who also operated a credit card debt management service, allegedly told clients that he was putting their funds into an escrow account and that he would use the payments to negotiate their debt with credit card companies. Instead, he used the money for himself, Schuette said.
Longordo also allegedly received unemployment compensation when he wasn't eligible for it, and he failed to file taxes for several of his companies.
Longordo operated under the company names Modify Debt Experts LLC, Experts LLC, Modify Credit Experts, and DLC Group.
He is charged with false pretenses, larceny by conversion, violating the debt management act, larceny, failing to file an income tax, unemployment compensation fraud and conducting a business under an assumed name without filing a certificate.
Longordo was arraigned Thursday.
Citizens who believe they may have been victims of Longordo and/or Modify Loan Experts, or any of his other companies, are encouraged to file complaints with the Michigan Attorney General's Office.