Margaret Becker, Director of the Homeowners Defense Project at Staten Island Legal Services, was involved in a foreclosure case that brought to light the involvement of smaller players in the perpetuation of the housing crisis.
Read the article in the Staten Island Advance.
The client, seventy-five-year-old Rose Marie Giammarino, sunk deeper into debt and into default after Joseph Crapanzano and Mark LaMassa got her an “interest only” $350,000 mortgage that was meant to save her home from foreclosure in 2006. Instead, the loan doubled her monthly payments and was due to be repaid in full after just one year—an impossible feat for Ms. Giammarino. Ms. Giammarino’s daughter Margaret, who dealt with the men on her mother’s behalf, did not learn until closing day that the loan was from a private institution rather than a bank. “I think that the brokers involved were looking for a way to make a loan because these loans were so lucrative,” said Margaret. Prior to their business with the Giammarinos, Crapanzano and LaMassa had served 21 months in federal prison in connection with a shady real estate deal in Florida. Cases like the Giammarinos’ could be avoided in the future thanks to new regulations which require all individuals who originate mortgages in New York to undergo criminal background checks and fingerprinting.