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Adan R. Cueva, a former mortgage loan professional, ran the year-long scam — along with his father and brother — out of Time Consulting & Associates on Ridge Road, promising to reduce callers’ mortgage payments and lower their interest rates to 2%, Bergen County Prosecutor John L. Molinelli said early this afternoon.
Time Consulting charged from $3,500 to $5,000, most times requiring a $1,500 down
payment, with the balance spread out at $500 a month, the prosecutor said.
Once victims signed and paid the upfront fee, Cueva, 31, had them complete statements “with detailed personal identify information,” Molinelli said.
He also told them to “stop making mortgage payments to their mortgage lenders and make the monthly mortgage payments to Time Consulting & Associates,” he said, adding that Cueva promised to forward the payments to the banks and negotiate for lower amounts for them.
Molinelli said Cueva also instructed the victims to give their banks his company’s phone number and to have all correspondence forwarded to the Lyndhurst business.
“In most cases, the victims were not in arrears but having difficulty keeping up with the monthly mortgage payments due to high interest rates,” the prosecutor said. So they took the offer.
Investigators said they soon learned that employees of the company — including Cueva’s brother, 26-year-old Angel Cueva-Castro — impersonated the victims when the banks called as a way of stalling for time. Meanwhile, Cueva continued to collect the payments, Molinelli said.
Most times, Cueva’s father, 57-year-old Adan L. Cueva collected the payments in cash from the victims at their homes or businesses, providing a pre-signed receipt, the prosecutor said.
“In addition,” he said, the younger Cueva “instructed his employees to use the victims’ personal information to open credit card accounts using the Time Consulting & Associates address.”
He used the cards for himself, the prosecutor said.
After receiving a series of complaints, Cueva told the victims “they had been approved by their banks for a trial period of lower mortgage payments, Molinelli said, adding that he then sent them bogus letters purportedly from the banks.
Molinelli’s detectives on Thursday arrested Adan Cueva at his home on charges of theft by deception, ID theft trafficking, impersonation, official misconduct, conspiracy and other counts.
That same day, they arrested Angel Cueva-Castro and both men’s father, Adan L. Cueva, outside the Time Consulting offices on similar charges.
All three were being held on $500,000 bail each in the Bergen County Jail.
Adan R. Cueva, Adan L. Cueva, Angel Cueva-Castro (MUGSHOTS: Courtesy Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office)
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