Terra Foundation swindler Rocco Cermele has been ordered to pay $694,450 in restitution to victims and sentenced to time served in prison plus three years of supervised release.
Cermele, of Yonkers, had pleaded guilty to fraud and conspiracy to commit fraud in U.S. District Court, White Plains.
The Terra Foundation of Valhalla and its predecessor, The Pillow Foundation, were not actual tax-exempt entities. From 2011 to 2012, the pretend foundations targeted homeowners who were struggling with home mortgage payments, claiming they could eliminate mortgage debt for a fee.
Terra filed about 60 mortgage discharge documents with county clerks, on $33 million in loans, making it look as if the homeowners had paid off their debts.
The conspirators also encouraged clients to take out second mortgages and reverse mortgages, according to court documents, and then collected fees on the new loans.
Some clients ended up saddled with debt on both the original loan and the new loan.
Cermele was Terra”™s director of operations. He recruited clients, according to court records, and signed phony mortgage discharge papers.
His confederates included Jacqueline Graham, of Antioch, California, described by prosecutors as the scheme”™s mastermind; Bruce Lewis, of Alaska and Washington state; Anthony Vigna, a former Thornwood attorney; and Paula Guadagno, of Verplank.
Graham was sentenced last year to 11 years’ imprisonment. Lewis was sentenced in 2019 to 7 years in prison. Vigna was sentenced in 2019 to one year in prison and was disbarred as an attorney. Guadagno has not been sentenced.
Cermele was originally sentenced in October in a proceeding that was conducted by telephone by U.S. District Judge Nelson S. Roman.
Roman granted a government request to seal the transcript of the proceeding last October, and on March 24 issued the formal judgment.
