Terrill “Terry” Meisinger will never learn, according to the federal government's latest case against the 74-year-old out of Seal Beach. A federal judge in 2012 convinced Meisinger to pay a $5 million penalty to resolve a lawsuit the U.S. Attorney filed against him for alleged mortgage-loan fraud. Now he's looking at up to 42 years in the federal pen if convicted of doing the same thing after the earlier case had been resolved.
]
Terrill “Terry” Meisinger to Pay $5 Million to Resolve “Massive” Foreclosure Fraud Case
An indictment read against Meisinger in federal court in Los Angeles Wednesday alleges he defrauded a distressed homeowner by inducing him to sign a quitclaim in exchange for promises that included negotiating a short-sale agreement with his lender that would free the homeowner from his mortgage on a property on Monte Alban Drive in North Las Vegas, Nevada.
Meisinger is accused of instead causing a deed of trust to be recorded on the property, which was followed by a fraudulent bankruptcy on behalf of the person who supposedly now held an interest in the home. Meanwhile, Meisinger rented out the home to another person while foreclosure proceedings were stayed as a result of the fraudulent bankruptcy.
Straight from the indictment: “Meisinger repeated the process of causing the recording of deeds of trusts in the names of various lenders whose identities he controlled and causing the filing of bankruptcies on behalf of those lenders to delay the foreclosure proceedings, while collecting rents on the Monte Alban Property.”
Ballsy? Well consider this: the same indictment claims the Vegas case is just one of “widespread” instances where Meisinger has allegedly committed mortgage fraud since he was ordered to pony up that $5 million. And federal prosecutors claim he's doing it much the same as he did before.
He's been slapped with two counts of wire fraud–which can send him away for 20 years each–and one count of aggravated identity theft, which carries an additional maximum of two years in the pen.
By the way, the gubment suggests contacting HUD for approved mortgage lenders to avoid the Terry Meisingers of the world.
Email: mc****@oc******.com. Twitter: @MatthewTCoker. Follow OC Weekly on Twitter @ocweekly or on Facebook!
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.