San Antonio Woman Sentenced to Federal Prison for Criminal Contempt and Mail Fraud in Foreclosure Prevention Scheme
| U.S. Attorney’s Office September 11, 2009 |
John E. Murphy, Acting United States Attorney, announced that 55-year-old Rosario Divins, of San Antonio, a self-proclaimed foreclosure prevention specialist, was sentenced to 350 months in federal prison for criminal contempt and mail fraud.
In addition to the prison term, United States District Judge Fred Biery ordered that Divins pay $83,600 restitution to her victims and be place under supervised release for a period of three years after completing her prison term.
On June 17, 2009, a jury convicted Divins of seven counts each of criminal contempt and mail fraud. The jury found that since January 2000, Divins engaged in a fraudulent foreclosure prevention scheme. Testimony during the three-day trial revealed that Divins unjustly enriched herself by collecting over $80,000 in cash from individuals in desperate financial situations who responded to her mailout offering to stop their residential foreclosures. Divins continued to implement her scheme despite three separate sanctions from the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Texas ordering her to stop misrepresenting herself and making false promises to her clients.
This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Assistant United States Attorney Mark Lane prosecuted this case on behalf of the government.