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Dix Hills resident Mark Savransky, 59, has been sentenced to a term of three to six years in prison for scamming the homeowners out of a total of $601,546.92, which he must also pay in restitution.
Savransky pleaded guilty in October last year to two counts of second-degree grand larceny, felonies, and scheme to defraud, a misdemeanor.
According to Nassau County District Attorney Madeline Singas, Savransky operated a mortgage modification business under the alias Mark Savran.
Between 2008 and 2014, Savransky promised 32 homeowners in Nassau County and elsewhere that, after securing certain modifications, he would hold their mortgage payments in trust and forward them to the financial institutions servicing the homeowners’ mortgages.
Instead, Singas said, Savransky converted the funds for personal use, stealing the money from the homeowners. Savransky used the funds for ATM cash withdrawals, credit card payments, child support, car payments, gasoline, travel expenses, restaurants, grocery stores, department stores, and Netflix.
Singas said that his clients were typically residential homeowners who had purchased their homes using a subprime adjustable-rate mortgage between 2006 and 2009. When the payments became more than the homeowners could afford, they then hired Savransky to assist in obtaining a mortgage modification.
Savransky requested that all paperwork from the bank be given to him and if additional paperwork was sent by the bank to the victim, he demanded that it be given to him immediately, preferably unopened.
In pleading guilty, Savransky admitted to counseling his clients to give him the monthly mortgage payment that was due under the modified mortgage. Savransky then informed his clients that he would make the payments on their behalf and, in doing so, create a record of payment that would prevent a lender from denying that payments were made or from reneging on any mortgage modification that was obtained.
At Savransky’s request, those payments were mostly made in cash or by check that did not include the payee. Savransky later completed the payee portion of the check, thereby giving him the means to misappropriate the funds.
When the homeowners’ mortgage payments weren’t made, lenders began foreclosing on properties that belonged to Savransky’s clients. When some of the homeowners complained, some received a limited amount of repayment.
Savransky was arrested in August 2015 detective investigators from the Nassau County District Attorney’s Office.
According to Singas, Savransky’s victims include residents from Amityville, Baldwin, Bayside, Brentwood, the Bronx, Brooklyn, East Northport, Farmingdale, Hempstead, Hicksville, Huntington, Levittown, Lynbrook, Malverne, Merrick, Mount Vernon, New Hyde Park, Queens Village, Richmond Hill, Riverhead, Uniondale and Westbury.
“Today’s sentence sends a strong message to those who would prey on vulnerable homeowners during tough financial times in their lives,” Singas said. “Victims were close to losing their homes because of this defendant’s scheme and lies. I am grateful to our partners in Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office, the Suffolk County Police Department and the Bronx District Attorney’s Office for their assistance on this case.”
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