Dallas County Community Action Committee, Inc. Vice President Admits to Scheming Homeowners Seeking Mortgage Loan and Foreclosure Prevention Assistance

DALLAS — Francisco Javier Gonzalez, a/k/a “Javier Gonzalez,” 45, of Duncanville, Texas, appeared today before U.S. District Sam A. Lindsay and pleaded guilty to one count of mail fraud, announced U.S. Attorney John Parker of the Northern District of Texas.

Gonzalez faces a maximum statutory penalty of 20 years and a $250,000 fine. Restitution could also be ordered. He has been in custody since the time of his arrest in October 2016.

According to documents filed in the case, the DCCAC was a non-profit entity, accredited by HUD between October 1990 and mid- February 2016, to provide housing counseling. It was created in 1965 by the Dallas Commissioners Court to support the efforts of the Johnson administration to combat poverty. Gonzalez served as DCCAC’s Vice President and one of the directors. Gonzalez also leased space in the DCCAC offices for another entity, known as Residential Counseling FJ LLC.

According to the charging documents filed in the case, between 2009 through 2016 Gonzalez through his work at DCCAC, defrauded homeowners under the guise that he was assisting them with mortgage assistance. Gonzalez specifically sought out victims who were facing financial difficulty and who had contacted the DCCAC seeking mortgage loan and foreclosure prevention assistance. He also identified victims facing such financial distress by subscribing to the Foreclosure Listing Service, a/k/a Roddy List, which offers listings of foreclosure and pre-foreclosure homes, by county, through a review of public records. Once identified, Gonzalez would meet with these victims in the DCCAC offices and in the victims’ homes. He would explain a plan to reduce the victim’s mortgage payment and to prevent foreclosure; the plan often included a loan modification application. These applications often contained information that had been falsified by Gonzalez and were otherwise incomplete.

According to plea documents, on February 28, 2013, Gonzalez prepared and submitted a false and fraudulent Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA) application to a bank in an effort to delay foreclosure and extract additional funds from victims. As a result of Gonzalez’s scheme to defraud homeowners, the Department of Housing and Urban Development and certain banks suffered a loss of $611,740.55.

HUD Office of Inspector General, FHFA Office of Inspector General, and the USPIS investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney P.J. Meitl is in charge of the prosecution.

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