WASHINGTON — Two Virginia men have been charged with conspiring to defraud thousands of distressed homeowners who thought they were hiring a legal firm to help them avoid foreclosure, according to the Department pf Justice (DOJ).
The indictment charged four people, including two lawyers: David Maresca, 48, of Manassas, Virginia, Scott Marinelli, 51, of Mountainside, New Jersey, Sam Babbs, III, 41, of Orlando, Florida, and Terrylle Blackstone, 35, of Woodbridge, Virginia.
Maresca was the founder of Synergy Law LLC, in D.C., which he formed in 2016, and Themis Law PLLC, opened in 2019. Marinelli, who was licensed in New Jersey, owned 10% of Synergy; Babbs, who was licensed in Florida and D.C., owned his own firm – Babbs Law Firm P.L. - and 10% of Themis. Blackstone worked for all three firms.
Maresca, Marinelli, and Blackstone were also charged with five counts of mail fraud; Maresca, Babbs, and Blackstone with three counts of wire fraud and two counts of mail fraud; and Maresca with five counts of monetary transactions in criminally-derived property, and two counts of falsification of bankruptcy records, the DOJ filings say.
According to the indictment, the scheme involved marketing Synergy Law and Themis Law through telephone, television, and internet advertising which told homeowners that attorneys could help them avoid foreclosure. Through the law firms, call centers were operated with a script to contact the homeowner's lender to negotiate solutions.
The homeowners signed agreements in which the law firms promised to provide "legal representation,” “attorney services” and “legal services” to the clients, but services were never provided from Synergy and Themis Law. Synergy Law required homeowner-clients to pay an initial retainer amount which would often be between $995 and $1,750. They also required a monthly recurring amount to be paid for as long as Synergy Law represented the homeowner.
Officials said that the victim funds, once in the firms' accounts, would be used for personal benefit. When the clients faced imminent foreclosure, Synergy Law provided non-legal bankruptcy petition preparation services and directed clients to file pro se bankruptcy petitions to stop foreclosure. Clients were also told not to disclose who helped them with this.
Themis Law clients, who were considering filing for bankruptcy to save their homes, were referred to Babbs Law where they signed a new retainer agreement and paid additional fees.
When bankruptcy judges, Synergy Law clients, and the U.S. Trustee's Program raised concerns about Synergy Law's practices, Blackstone would attend court hearings on behalf of the company and make false statements to the court about the operations. When Marinelli's law license was suspended in New Jersey in 2017, and D.C. in 2018, Maresca, Marinelli, and Blackstone continued to operate Synergy Law and collect monthly payments purportedly for legal services.
Maresca is also charged with falsely filing for bankruptcy on behalf of Synergy Law, the indictment states. It also states that in answering a question on the bankruptcy forms about financial affairs, which required Synergy Law LLC to list transfers of money or other property that was not in the ordinary course of business, Maresca falsely stated “None,” when he knew he had withdrawn $315,083.42 from Synergy Law accounts to purchase his home.
The indictment includes a notice of forfeiture for all illegally derived proceeds from the fraud scheme.