WASHINGTON — A Virginia man faces sentencing after pleading guilty in a scheme to defraud thousands of distressed homeowners.
Terrylle Blackstone, 36, of Woodbridge pleaded guilty on Friday. Blackstone, alongside others, promised to help homeowners across the country avoid foreclosure by offering legal services that did not exist.
Instead, Blackstone and others pocketed the money-- to the tune of $15 million.
Blackstone pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and wire fraud for his involvement in the scheme. He is scheduled for sentencing on Oct. 3.
Authorities say Blackstone admitted to working with David Maresca of Virginia, attorney Scott Marinelli of New Jersey and attorney Sam Babbs of Florida in the scheme from January 2018 to February 2021.
The group told homeowners that they operated a national law firm that was based in the District, and promised to review the homeowner's file and provide them legal representation. They said a local attorney would be assigned to help them and that the homeowner could meet and consult with this attorney. In addition, the attorneys in their law firm would help the homeowner file for bankruptcy if needed.
Blackstone further admitted that from 2016 to 2019, he and the others marketed Synergy Law with telephone, television, and internet advertising in which they told homeowners that "attorneys at Maresca and Marinelli’s Synergy Law in Manassas could help them avoid foreclosure."
In early 2019, Marinelli was taken to jail in Pennsylvania. Yet Blackstone, Maresca, Marinelli and others continued to operate Synergy and collect monthly payments allegedly for legal services. During this time, there was no attorney who was a member of Synergy who could practice law. Synergy never had attorneys review homeowner files and Synergy never had attorneys contact a client’s lender to discuss a mortgage resolution.
And Blackstone admitted that, from 2019 until at least 2022, he and the others marketed another firm, Themis Law, with advertising which told homeowners that attorneys with Themis could help them avoid foreclosure.
Themis operated a call center at an office in Manassas, Virginia. Call center workers used scripts during their phone calls with homeowners in which Themis falsely promised that an attorney would review the homeowner’s case file and that an assigned legal team would contact the homeowner’s lender to negotiate a resolution., which never happened.
Themis required clients to pay an initial retainer followed by a monthly recurring amount for as long as the firm represented the homeowner.
Themis Law never provided legal services to their clients.
When Themis clients faced imminent foreclosure, Themis advised those clients to consider filing for bankruptcy to save their home and referred the clients to Babbs at Babbs Law Firm. Those clients then signed a new retainer agreement and paid additional fees to Babbs.
During Blackstone's employment at Synergy Law and Themis Law, Blackstone received no less than $163,199.30 in direct payments from the companies.
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