Crime Watch

Nassau D.A.: Mortgage holders cheated out of $728K

Posted

A Dix Hills man who ran a mortgage-modification business stole a little more than $728,000 from 30 clients, including at least one homeowner in Merrick, according to acting Nassau County District Attorney Madeline Singas.

Officials alleged that Mark Savransky, 56, also known as Mark Savran, cheated clients from Nassau, Suffolk, Queens and Westchester counties, as well as Brooklyn and the Bronx.

He was arraigned last week before Nassau District Court Judge James Darcy on a laundry list of felony charges, including:
n Four counts of second-degree grand larceny.
n Twenty-four counts of third-degree grand larceny.
n Two counts of fourth-degree grand larceny.
n First-degree scheme to defraud.

Savransky faces 10 to 20 years in prison if convicted of the charges against him. The top charge carries a sentence of 7 1/2 to 15 years.

Bail was set at $250,000 bond or $125,000 cash, and he was required to surrender his passport.

“This defendant preyed on vulnerable homeowners who had subprime mortgages, and some of the victims nearly lost their homes,” Singas said. “The victims made honest attempts to renegotiate their mortgages, yet the defendant lied to them and stole more than $728,000 to line his pockets.”

Subprime mortgages, which often carry higher interest rates, are made to homeowners with low credit ratings.

Savransky operated his mortgage-modification business in Nassau from 2008 to 2013, promising clients that he would hold their mortgage payments and forward them to the financial institutions servicing their mortgages.

But he didn’t forward the payments, according to Singas. Instead, he used the funds to make credit-card, child-support and car payments, as well as fund groceries, meals out, trips and Netflix.

Savransky’s clients, most of whom were homeowners, typically bought their houses with subprime adjustable-rate mortgages from 2006 to 2009. When the payments ballooned to unaffordable levels, they hired him to modify their mortgages and reduce their interest rates.

Page 1 / 2