Outline · [ Standard ] · Linear+ Summary - settled 12/06, It's time to get serious and put the criminals in their place

[Christine]

I've been so busy with my FCRA suits, only the impending court hearing motivated me to work on this and transfer the case to the civil division so I can do discovery and increase my claims above the $2,500 small claims limit.

First Magnus shows absolutely NO remorse and continues to protect the faxers.

So I spent New Year's Eve and Day reading up on RESPA, TILA. My first idea of 2006 was to add a RESPA claim for illegal kickbacks and demand $1,000 in statutory damages. We'll see how that goes.

First Magnus will regret ever having heard my name:

I will take this wherever I need to take it to demand RESPA and TILA enforcement.

The advertised loan program is extremely dangerous and will result in many foreclosures even if NOT advertised with false savings and APR. It's THE loan advertised by most junk faxers and many spammers.

Discussed in more detail at the blog:

Housing sales slowing down - house-poor Californians - mortgage fraud rampant

From my initial disclosures:

"... Plaintiff claims statutory damages and treble damages due to the willful violations of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (“TCPA”), as First Magnus caused the unsolicited fax to be sent, violated the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (“RESPA”) by paying illegal kickbacks for referrals, solicited through false advertising in violation of the Arizona Consumer Fraud Act and the Truth In Lending Act (“TILA”)."

And:

"VIII. DAMAGES

Plaintiff is seeking statutory damages and treble damages as provided for by the TCPA, RESPA and the Arizona Consumer Fraud Act in the amount of $6,500.

Plaintiff seeks to stop the false and illegal advertising by ruthless mortgage companies like First Magnus who can’t stay in business without misleading and deceiving consumers and violating numerous consumer protection laws. As the record shows, First Magnus will not cease its illegal activities until the cost of lawsuits exceeds its profits.

The completely misrepresented mortgage, advertised by criminals nationwide, will put many consumers into foreclosure and plaintiff is outraged by the lack of enforcement of consumer protection laws by regulators.

Therefore, the amount received by plaintiff in this action from a judgment or settlement in excess of $1,500 + costs is to be donated to consumer rights and/or charitable organization(s) of plaintiff’s choice."

The trouble is that I don't even know of any organization that isn't corrupt. I guess it's a little early to worry about already.

The illegal kickback and false advertising claims will get a lot of attention in the press release, whenever I get to that.

[Christine]

A quick update.

I had the case moved from small claims to the civil division to be able to conduct discovery, as the woman who attended the meditation by phone on behalf of First Magnus denied all liability.

I requested a continuance of the hearing so I could conduct discovery. However, Justice of the Peace John Taylor rescheduled the hearing to 2/9/06 so that there would be no chance for me to get the First Magnus responses by the hearing date.

At the hearing, loan agent Justin Fish and the First Magnus attorney Ali Farhang with Fennemore Craig in Tuscon showed up and he claimed that I sued the wrong party as they did not send the fax, but paid the lead generator for the referral.

Notably, they continued to cover for the lead generator and I couldn't sue them if I wanted to, as I have no idea who they are. Of course that was one of my discovery questions.

Justice of the Peace John Tayler encouraged First Magnus to apply for attorneys fees and they requested $6,407 plus:

"In addition, under A.R.S. 12-349(A), the Court has the discretion to assess double damages, not to exceed $5,000, against Plaintiff. FMFC requests the Court consider the assessment of double damages in order to deter Plaintiff from filing future frivolous and extortious actions."

I filed an objection. Got a bunch of stuff to scan and post.

Hopefully I'll get to file the RESPA suit in federal court against Justin Fish and First Magnus soon, and of course I'll appeal any award of fees to First Magnus in local court.

A reader sent me another fax that was sent on behalf of Justin Fish from 2006, it looks very similar to the fax I received in 6/05 except that the rates are different. The APR is quoted as 4.8% - obviously false. I hope to get an affidavit regarding those continued illegal activities.

First Magnus is now on my PUT OUT OF BUSINESS list.

Other mortgage faxers at least pretend to want to comply with the law, these arrogant bastards at First Magnus think they own all the courts? We shall see.

I just posted my complaint with the Arizona Department of Financial Institutions. Not that they ever do anything, but I'll certainly be demanding enforcement and I won't hesitate to take that up with the Governor and make it a national issue. The press release is next - probably in a couple weeks.

This isn't about a fax, it's about the exploitation of the disadvantaged and Corporate America's disregard for the law.

[Christine]

Been VERY busy, I'm sorry I haven't updated.

Just before Thanksgiving superior court remanded to justice court and it looks like we're settling.

I'm really hoping to find the time to contact the AZ governor or whoever is in charge of the corrupt regulators who do NOTHING to enforce advertising and lending laws.

[Christine]

I forgot to post that we settled last December.

I since found out that HUD had been investigating First Magnus for numerous problems including illegal kickbacks.

HUD investigates First Magnus for illegal kickbacks