Lovely.

This bastard was our property manager in Maryland:

Molester is also known as foreclosure swindler

Relatively speaking, we're fortunate that we're down only several thousand dollars. I don't think we're going to bother pursuing repayment.

Molester is also known as foreclosure swindler
By ERIC HARTLEY, Staff Writer, The Capital

Frank Lawrence wasn't surprised to hear Loren J. Williams was convicted of preying on young children.

The seven boys Williams admitted to sexually abusing between 1999 and 2003 are far from the only people he's taken advantage of, said Mr. Lawrence, who used to work for Williams.

Mr. Lawrence said Williams pulled mortgage foreclosure scams for years, victimizing people who were about to lose their homes and were desperate for help.

"He's hurt a lot of people. He just deserves to get punished for it," Mr. Lawrence said. "He's a scam artist."

Many homeowners agree, and several have sued Williams in the past few years, alleging they too were scammed. It's just the latest in a string of legal troubles dating back more than a decade for the 44-year-old Williams, who has lived in Epping Forest and Gingerville, both in the Annapolis area.

He or his companies, Annapolis Land & Properties and Annapolis Land & Property Management, have been defendants in 18 lawsuits in county Circuit Court since 1993, including at least three alleging foreclosure scams, records show.

Williams could get 45 years in prison for the sexual abuse when he's sentenced in July. He molested three of his own relatives and other boys he'd hired to do yard work for him. He also faces sex abuse charges in Worcester County and is being investigated by federal authorities, who declined to give details of their cases.

And some of those involved with civil cases against Williams say his troubles could just be beginning.

Scott Borison, a Frederick lawyer who's handled five cases against Williams, including four in Anne Arundel County, thinks he has victimized at least 200 homeowners.

Mr. Borison said it made sense that Williams would abuse children.

"He's a predator all around," Mr. Borison said. "It's not like you can be a predator during the day at work and then go home and not be one."

Jillian Lockhart-Stephens, 24, says she and her husband were among the people Williams hurt.

Ms. Lockhart-Stephens, who worked at the Pentagon, had severe stress problems after Sept. 11, 2001, and eventually had to leave her job. She and her husband, Franko Stephens, couldn't pay the mortgage on their Arnold home and the bank was about to foreclose in April 2003.

That's where Williams came in, seeming to be the answer to their prayers. Instead, Ms. Lockhart-Stephens said, he was more like their worst nightmare.

Mr. Lawrence found the couple for Williams, who convinced them to sign papers transferring their deed to him. He told the couple he was going to make $4,000 in payments they were late on, in the process saving their credit rating from the huge hit of a foreclosure.

Williams made some payments, but he never paid off the $95,000 balance of the mortgage - indeed, he wasn't even responsible for it, thanks to the papers he'd had them sign, Ms. Lockhart-Stephens said.

Two years later, Ms. Lockhart-Stephens' marriage has broken up because of the stress, she's living with her parents on the Broadneck Peninsula and she still gets calls from the bank. Her credit, along with her husband's, is shot - all because of Williams, she believes.

"He's a con man," Ms. Lockhart-Stephens said. She hasn't filed suit yet, but said she's been speaking with attorneys.

Williams still faces a civil lawsuit accusing him of pulling a mortgage scam on an Odenton couple. In addition to the mortgage schemes, he's failed to pay tens of thousands of dollars in business debts and been accused of doing nothing about drunken and disruptive tenants at rental property he owned, court records show.

Attorneys who have represented Williams in civil and criminal cases didn't return calls seeking comment for this article.

Plaintiffs' lawyers say Williams exploited legal loopholes to enrich himself, but a bill recently passed by the General Assembly could prevent more people from being victimized in such mortgage scams, one of its sponsors said. The bill provides new criminal penalties for foreclosure fraud and gives homeowners new civil avenues to get back at the scammers.

"My bill should put those people out of business," said Del. Doyle L. Niemann, D-Prince George's.

Similar scams are a growing problem nationwide. The FBI's investigations of mortgage fraud jumped from 102 in 2001 to 550 in 2004, according to the National Association of Mortgage Brokers, a trade organization representing 25,000 members. FBI cases resulted in $3.8 billion in restitution orders and $35.6 million in fines in 2003.

Knock on the door

A few days before their house was set to be sold at a foreclosure auction, Franko and Jillian Stephens were at their wits' end. Then Mr. Lawrence, who recruited for Williams, came to their home.

"This guy shows up knocking on the door one day with what appeared to be the solution to all of our problems," Ms. Lockhart-Stephens recalled.

Then Williams came to the house and gave his spiel. They were impressed.

"Franko and I were thinking, 'That's the greatest thing in the whole wide world. Where do we sign up?' " Ms. Lockhart-Stephens said.

With the impending foreclosure, she had to be hospitalized for a panic attack. But as soon as she came home, she signed Williams' papers.

What Williams actually did was convince them to give their house - at no charge - to a shell company called Magothy Estates Trust. That company is still the owner and Mr. Lawrence is still listed as the trustee in state property records, though another woman has paid $150,000 for the house and lives there, Ms. Lockhart-Stephens said.

A judge in another case ordered Williams to pay $250,000 in punitive damages for pulling a similar scam on a Millersville couple.

Kenneth and Elizabeth Krauss lost $40,000 in equity in their home after signing up with Williams.

"Mr. Williams basically defrauded them of all of that money," Circuit Court Judge Paul G. Goetzke said in an interview. "This young couple lost everything."

The judge said he was only asked to order $64,000 in punitive damages, but he almost quadrupled that amount because of how egregious Williams' conduct was.

Mr. Lawrence said Williams and his wife, Abbey, were secretive, and court records and other interviews bear out that assertion.

Williams' companies are registered to a mail drop on Forest Drive rather than an actual office. One investigator who tried to serve him with a summons in a lawsuit found several incorrect addresses for Williams, and the only phone number went to a voicemail system, with no calls ever returned, according to court records.

"It's the way he conducted his business," Mr. Lawrence said. "He doesn't want anyone banging on his door."

Mr. Borison said people like Williams seem to have no conscience about the people they hurt.

"They have a very, very low opinion of the people they take advantage of," Mr. Borison said. " 'If they don't know any better, it's their problem.' "

Ms. Lockhart-Stephens and her husband had a couple months in the house before they moved to a Glen Burnie apartment temporarily.

Mr. Lawrence is a defendant along with Williams in a still-pending lawsuit involving an Odenton couple, but he said he bears no responsibility for the scams Williams pulled off.

"I just picked the wrong individual to jump into business with," Mr. Lawrence said.

Ms. Lockhart-Stephens said she doesn't blame Mr. Lawrence, either. She's focusing her anger on Williams.

"I spent my 23rd birthday on a couch in a house we didn't own any more," she said. "We had no electricity and no running water. ... I want to get him. I just haven't figured out how yet."

Signing a blank page

Mr. Niemann, who's a Prince George's County prosecutor as well as a legislator, knew firsthand about the financial tricks people like Williams pull. He'd gotten complaints and tried to prosecute the perpetrators for theft, but struggled since there was no specific law against foreclosure fraud.

"You could rip people off badly, unconscionably, but not necessarily break a criminal law," Mr. Niemann said.

That's why he proposed his law, which has yet to be signed by the governor. It's an emergency bill, which means that if signed it would go into effect sooner than most laws.

It requires all agreements to be in writing, with the homeowner being given copies.

Like Ms. Lockhart-Stephens', many of the contracts pushed by scammers are signed at the last minute on car hoods or kitchen tables, giving the homeowners little opportunity to review what they're signing.

In the rush, people sometimes literally signed blank pages that were then filled with other terms, Mr. Niemann said.

His bill also requires a title transfer to be done after a third-party settlement meeting and gives homeowners the possibility of getting out of contracts. It provides for a three-year maximum prison term and stiffer fines in civil lawsuits.

"It's the nation's toughest foreclosure fraud law," Mr. Niemann said, adding that it was modeled after Minnesota's law.

He said people who have been taken advantage of shouldn't feel bad, since fraud artists specialize in finding vulnerable people.

"They've spun a good tale and they say, 'Here, I'll take care of you. Sign this,' " he said.

Even people like the Krausses, who've won large civil judgments, might have trouble collecting since Mr. Williams is likely to be spending decades in prison for the sex abuse crimes.

Mr. Niemann and Judge Goetzke said it will be up to the plaintiffs and their attorneys to find any hidden assets Mr. Williams might have.

"If he's got the money somewhere they have to find a way to get to it," Mr. Niemann said.

People who win a court case also might have some recourse with credit agencies, Mr. Niemann said.

Ms. Lockhart-Stephens doesn't know what she's going to do. She can't get a job because of her miserable credit rating, but she wants to find a permanent home for her sons, 6 and 3.

"My oldest son tells me, 'I want to go back to the old house,'" she said.

Comments

[lawbrat]

OMG I'd say your very lucky. What a weasel. Predator and scam artist, what a nice combination! I'm glad you posted this. It makes you realize that you have to be careful, and if it seems to good to be true, it probably is.

[Circus Kelli]

I'm with lawbrat. Let me add what a horrible, disgusting thing to do. I say shoot the bastard.

[cat]

Ew. And EW.

[mrtl]

Yes, some major lessons learned here. We could have avoided all this (with him at least) if we had done some checking around.

As it is, we're now wondering if the squatters who last rented from us really missed 5 months or if the jackass kept some of it for himself. Really, though, we weren't that surprised by the business dealings; dude up and disappeared on us in March 2004 (probably to jail), leaving others to run his business.

[KM]

Cat,
Don't worry. Loren Williams and his wife have been dealt some very serious blows since March '04. In fact, I'm just winding up for a knock out punch!
K. Krauss

[Kristen]

We just got home from court today to find out, he was never served out paperwork, why? because he is in Anne Arundel detention center.

I wish i had done some research before renting from this creep. We have been involved in our lease for 3 months without water in out house. It is a nightmare, and we are out thousands. We kept hoping things would change, but promises failed, and court was our only hope....not it looks as though that ave is coming to a dead end.

Sorry for your experience with this jerk.