Two defendants bilked hundreds of distressed mortgage borrowers in Southern California out of millions of dollars, according to a complaint unsealed by a federal court on Monday.
The complaint, a joint action by the Federal Trade Commission and California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation, alleges that defendants Roger Scott Dyer and Dominic Ahiga charged upfront fees for loan relief that in “numerous instances” they failed to deliver.
The U.S. District Court filing marks the first joint action by the FTC and the DFPI to rely, in part, on the enforcement of the 2020 California Consumer Financial Protection Law. Their complaint, which was filed in California’s Central District, alleges that Dyer and Ahiga were in violation of CCFPL, the Federal Trade Commission Act, the COVID-19 Consumer Protection Act, the FTC’s Mortgage Assistance Relief Services Rule and the Telemarketing Sales Rule.
“Illegal mortgage relief assistance schemes prey on the most vulnerable homeowners and are a significant threat to the generational wealth that homeownership provides for consumers,” California DFPI Commissioner Clothilda Hewlett said in a press release. “The DFPI has taken strong decisive action against the companies behind this scheme using the California Consumer Financial Protection law to put a stop to their illegal activities.”
Dyer and Ahiga (a.k.a. Michael Dominic Grinnell) did business under several company names, according to the complaint. These included Amstar…
