Eric Liebman, a legal professional age 34, of Tampa, Florida, was found guilty of conspiring to commit bankruptcy and received a sentence of fifteen months in federal prison.
Eric Liebman Reprimanded for Bankruptcy
According to the documents filed with the court, Eric Liebman and his co-defendant, James Lee Clark, participated in a scheme to defraud mortgage creditors and guarantors, such as Fannie Mae, who held mortgage notes on properties that were in the process of foreclosure beginning in January 2010 and continuing through February 2017.
Fraudulently and dishonestly, Liebman and Clark led distressed homeowners who were facing foreclosure to believe that in exchange for executing quitclaim or warranty deeds for their properties to an entity controlled by Liebman, they would negotiate with the mortgage creditors to prevent the foreclosures from occurring.
This was a false and fraudulent representation made by Eric Liebman and Clark. Liebman and Clark were successful in persuading the financially troubled homeowners to either pay them rent or consent to having their homes put up for sale. In order for Liebman to continue collecting ill-gotten rents or to profit from sales of the properties, he filed fraudulent bankruptcy petitions in the names of the homeowners.
This prevented the mortgage creditors from lawfully foreclosing and taking title to the properties, which allowed Liebman to continue collecting ill-gotten rents or to profit from sales of the properties.
The 24th of September, 2019, was the day that Liebman entered his guilty plea.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Office of Inspector General of the Federal Housing Finance Agency both looked into the offence by the legal assistant and made their findings public. Significant investigative assistance was also provided by the United States Trustee’s Office for the Middle District of Florida’s Tampa Division. Chris Poor, a Special Assistant to the United States Attorney, was the one in charge of the prosecution of this case.
