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    • RI AG office sues Seyboth real estate company for alleged bait-and-switch scam
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    RI AG office sues Seyboth real estate company for alleged bait-and-switch scam

    Umito Posted on

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    PROVIDENCE – The Rhode Island Attorney General’s Office is suing an East Providence real estate agent and his related companies, alleging they concocted a “bait and switch” scheme to defraud a Haitian couple, with limited English proficiency, out of their home.

    Special Assistant Attorney General Jordan Mickman filed a complaint on October 31 in Providence Superior Court. Judge Joseph McBurney granted a motion for a temporary restraining order on Nov. 6 after the defendants granted it. A hearing is scheduled for Dec. 6 to decide whether the restraining order should be extended until the case is resolved.

    Mickman wrote in the complaint that the real estate agent Kyle Seybothhis company, The Seyboth Real Estate teamwith Century 21and others “deceived” Smith Hill homeowners Marie and Jean Marie Delva, “elderly” Haitian immigrants, into selling their Seyboth home for a “grossly inadequate and commercially unreasonable price.”

    In a text message, Seyboth’s spokesperson, Mike Raia wrote that his client denies the allegations and “remains confident” that Seyboth and his company “acted legally,” but they would say no more.

    What was the alleged scam?

    Mickman wrote in the complaint that Seyboth and his team allegedly engaged in a “bait and switch” scam, part of a “plague of stock and deed theft transactions” that federal regulators have warned. The alleged scheme is part of a broader trend of “mortgage rescue scams“.

    “Defendants, each and collectively, represented to the owners that they were offering a refinance when negotiating the transaction, but then engaged in a bait and switch by presenting sales documents at closing in a language that the owners couldn’t understand,” Mickman wrote.

    He wrote that Seyboth and the others sued “engage in similar unfair and deceptive practices each year targeting hundreds of financially vulnerable Rhode Islanders.”

    What the Attorney General’s Office Says Happened

    The Delvas have lived in their home on Pekin Street in Smith Hill for nearly 30 years. In May 2023, Wells Fargo informed them that their home was being foreclosed on, with a payoff balance of $62,408, Mickman wrote.

    A real estate agent “associated” with the firm, Thelma Howardcontacted Marie Delva in June 2023 and asked her how much she would sell. The next day, “foreclosure runner” Lowell Williams contacted Marie Delva and subsequently, according to text messages cited in the complaint, they set the parameters of an agreement that included keeping the family on title to the property. of the house and refinancing the remaining mortgage balance for another 30 years.

    The following month, the Delvas and their daughter met with a Warwick lawyer and requested an interpreter, which they reportedly never received. They were given a series of documents in English to sign, which they believed to be the refinancing agreement that would keep them on title. Instead, the documents gave title to Preferred Property Solutions, the lawsuit says. They never received a copy of the documents.

    The Delvas then made mortgage payments to Red Balloon Capital, one of Seyboth’s companies, for the following year. Then, on July 3, 2024, Seyboth listed the house for sale for $450,000.

    “By deceiving and misleading the Delvas through their false statements, the defendants sought to deprive the Devas of the equity in their home and induce them to sign under false pretenses a real estate sales contract to sell their home for long time,” Mickman wrote. .

    Other people and companies named in the suit are: The Seyboth Immobilier Inc. teamPreferred Real Estate Solutions, Red Balloon Capital LLC, Chris Messier and Lowell Williams.

    Preferred real estate solutions belongs to Seyboth and Messier and Red Balloon Capital belongs to Seyboth.

    What the Attorney General’s Office is looking for

    The Attorney General’s Office is looking for:

    • A permanent injunction for anyone prosecuted not to violate the state Deceptive Marketing Practices Act Again
    • So that Seyboth gives the house to the Delvas
    • An unspecified amount of restitution and “other equitable monetary relief” for the Delvas
    • A fine of $10,000 for each alleged violation of the Act
    • Attorney fees

    Thank you to our subscribers, who help make this coverage possible. If you are not a subscriber, please consider supporting quality local journalism with a Subscription to the Providence newspaper. Here is our latest offer.

    Follow Wheeler Cowperthwaite on X, @WheelerReporterOr him by email at [email protected].

    Umito
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