Select an option below to continue reading this premium story.
Already a Honolulu Star-Advertiser subscriber? Log in now to continue reading.
A Missouri woman has been sentenced in federal court in St. Louis for duping more than 80 Hawaii homeowners out of at least $265,000 in a mortgage relief scheme.
Marien Brown was sentenced on May 18 to serve 18 months in federal prison and to supervised relief for three years. She was ordered to pay $251,000 in restitution, court documents said.
Brown, who was 41 when she was charged in August, pleaded guilty in September to three counts of mail fraud and had faced up to 20 years in prison for each count.
According to a federal grand jury indictment, Brown created two businesses with addresses at a UPS Store and operated them from her home in Wentzville, Mo. She targeted Hawaii homeowners behind in their mortgage payments or on the brink of foreclosure and sent them mail claiming that her business provided a "mortgage rescue" or "foreclosure rescue" service.
Brown, known to her victims as Marien White, convinced homeowners who contacted her that she could modify their mortgages if they made payments through her. She operated her scheme behind the business names 1st Financial Resources and 1st Federal Resources.