A California man was sentenced to 52 months in federal prison over his role in an alleged mortgage loan modification scheme.
Mehdi Moarefian, 37, was also ordered by a federal judge to pay $2.4 million in restitution and was sentenced to three years of supervised release following his prison sentence, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Connecticut reported Tuesday.
Moarefian, who is also known as Michael Miller, was a senior member of a sales team that operated a series of California-based companies that claimed to provide home loan modifications and other debt relief services to consumers across the country. Moarefian and his six alleged co-conspirators operated under various company names including First Choice Financial Group, Premiere Financial and Nation Star Financial.
The attorney's office claims that Moarefian and his colleagues would cold-call consumers and offer modification services to those having trouble repaying their mortgage, charging fees from $2,500 to $4,300 for their services. They would then falsely tell homeowners that they were approved for modifications or relief.
Altogether, homeowner losses due to the scheme totaled more than $3 million.
Moarefian and his co-conspirators were charged in January with conspiracy and fraud offenses. In February, Moarefian pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud.
The ringleader of the scheme, Aria Maleki, was
