Release
Date: December 20, 2007
Contact:
Mitchell Disney, Senior Deputy District Attorney
(805)
662-1706
or
Miles
Weiss, Senior Deputy District Attorney
(805)
662-1749
District
Attorney Gregory D. Totten announced today that a civil complaint
has been filed against Quest Home Loans, Inc., dba Quest Mortgage
('Quest'), and its owner/broker, Oscar Vasquez (DOB: 11/30/71),
of Oxnard. Quest specializes in sub-prime home loans to members
of the Spanish-speaking community.
The
complaint alleges that Quest and Oscar Vasquez, failed to
provide reasonable supervision over the activities of employees
and agents in dealing with consumers, failed to provide Spanish-speaking
customers with written Spanish translations of their mortgage
loan disclosure statements as required by California law,
and unlawfully employed and compensated unlicensed persons
in performing acts requiring a real estate license. The complaint
also alleges that Quest misrepresented and concealed material
terms of loans, including; the interest rate, the monthly
payment amount, whether the loan was fixed or adjustable,
the existence of negative amortization, the existence, duration
and amount of prepayment penalties, that the loan was interest
only, and the amount of cash back borrowers were to receive
under the new loans.
The
investigation was conducted jointly by the District Attorney's
Real Estate Fraud Prosecution Unit and Consumer and Environmental
Protection Unit.
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