Local News

Foreclosure Rescue Scheme Preys On Poor

Blue Hills Investors Swindle Homeowners

BOSTON (WBZ) ― He says he's trying to help people take back their lives and save their homes from foreclosure. He says he'll pray for you and your family.

But the I-Team looked into John Seigler's business deals and discovered Seigler and his associates aren't praying for people -- they're preying on poor people and taking their homes.

There's no stopping Marie Magny, one of the associates of Blue Hills Investors Group, as she's out for a walk. We wanted to ask her why some say she's working with John Seigler and swindling people's homes, but when she saw our camera she picked up the pace.

"About 30-some-odd years I've been here," Katie Skeens of Dorchester said. "So I think it's rotten, if they're doing wrong they need to stop. If it's wrong, it's wrong."

Skeens raised her family of five children at 44 Corbett St.

"It brings back a lot of memories," she said.

Skeens was struggling to pay her mortgage and turned to Seigler and Marie Magny for help.

"I thought she was helping," Skeens said.

Richard Prosper's sister, Youlaine Edouard, lost her Hyde Park home. The house sits in disrepair, and the garden that was once Youlaine's pride and joy is overgrown with weeds.

"They caused a disaster in my life," Prosper said. "It breaks my heart."

"Hello, this is John with Blue Hills Investors Group," says the recorded message. "I would like you to know that I have prayed for you and your family."

John Seigler is director and treasurer of Blue Hills Investors Group and the former head of Richfield Loan Finders. Both businesses were run out of a storefront on Blue Hill Avenue.

"We help people, people who are facing foreclosure," the recording continues. "Hallelujah, say it with me, hallelujah."

What Katie Skeens and Richard Prosper didn't know was that the man who was supposed to be their savior was the same man behind a tax return scheme back in 2002. He convinced welfare mothers to hand over their Social Security numbers and filed false tax returns in excess of $1 million.

"You want your life to be better," Prosper lamented. "If I only knew I wouldn't have gone down there."

These homeowners say Seigler and Magny led them down a dead end headed for foreclosure and took their homes along the way. According to court documents obtained by the I-Team, they were told to stop paying their mortgages and to sign their deeds over to Magny to stop the foreclosure.

"It didn't even take five minutes," Prosper recalled. "My sister just signed the paperwork, they said, 'That's it.'"

"This is predatory for profit foreclosure," attorney Paul Hogan said.

Hogan said the man convicted in a fraudulent scheme six years ago is back to his old ways.

"I think in this case it was a sense of faith and belief that it was someone in the community and they wanted someone in the community to help them," he said. "It's unfortunate and sad."

When we tried to speak with Magny about her role in these deals she ducked into a community health center, then headed out the door and down the street.

Magny's lawyer says his client is also a Seigler victim, recruited because she had good credit and was trying to make some cash.

"We're looking for leaders," the Blue Hill Investors Group's phone recording says. "My team and I will train you. God bless you. I'll see you at the top."

We spoke with John Seigler on the phone. He told us he's getting out of the foreclosure rescue business and is "going to become a minister, God willing."

"I just don't know,' Katie Skeens says. "I'm just disgusted."

"Seigler would even take money from God," Prosper adds.

So you may be asking, where is John Seigler? Well, he's a man on the move and very tough to track down. His lawyer gave us no comment at all.

Foreclosure rescue schemes have been banned in the state.

The attorney general says if you're having trouble paying your mortgage, never sign the deed to your property over to anyone else unless they're legitimate and licensed.

The civil suits against Seigler also name the banks and mortgage companies involved in these deals.

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