PHILADELPHIA—A federal jury, yesterday, returned guilty verdicts against a Cherry Hill, NJ woman and her parents for a mortgage fraud scheme that stripped the equity from the homes of desperate homeowners facing foreclosure. Silver Buckman, 37, of Cherry Hill, NJ, her parents, Vincent Foxworth, 70, and Cynthia Foxworth, 64, of Turnersville, NJ, were found guilty of bank fraud, wire fraud, and conspiracy to commit bank fraud and wire fraud. Their scheme caused losses to mortgage lenders of approximately $3.8 million. U.S. District Court Judge R. Barclay Surrick scheduled a sentencing hearing for January 29, 2016.

The defendants offered to help financially-vulnerable individuals save their homes from foreclosure or obtain money from the equity in their homes but, instead, defrauded the homeowners and mortgage lenders. Buckman owned and operated Fresh Start Financial Services (“FSFS”), in Mount Laurel, NJ and was an employee of American Home Lending as well as a mortgage broker for American One Mortgage (“AOM”). Her father is an experienced Realtor.

Between October 2006 and November 2009, Buckman and her co-defendants allegedly targeted financially vulnerable homeowners and represented to them that they could improve their credit, save their homes from foreclosure, or provide them with money through Buckman’s lease buyback program. The homeowners were told that “investors” would be used to temporarily refinance their homes and that they could repurchase the homes in one year, or once they regained their financial footing. The defendants also allegedly induced the homeowners into signing documents related to the sale and lease of their homes by their representations that the homeowners would remain on the title to their homes, that the equity from their homes would be placed into an individual escrow account in their names, and that new mortgages would be paid from the escrow accounts to establish their timely payment histories.

In order to carry out the scheme, Buckman recruited Vincent Foxworth and Cynthia Foxworth and others to be straw borrowers. Buckman submitted false financial and employment information about the straw borrowers to mortgage lenders. Once lenders agreed to fund the mortgage loans, Buckman prevented the homeowners from receiving the settlement proceeds and did not put money into escrow accounts for the homeowners. Instead, the defendants distributed the proceeds amongst themselves. Buckman used only a fraction of the homeowners’ monies toward the payment of the mortgages obtained by the straw borrowers for the homeowners’ homes and thereby caused the loans to go into default.

The defendants each face a potential advisory sentencing guideline range of approximately 87 to 108 months in prison plus restitution.

The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the United States Postal Inspection Service and IRS Criminal Investigations. It is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Anita Eve.