Philip Coon, EVP of Coast Bank of Florida, and John Miller, President of American Mortgage Link, were charged for their roles in a fee splitting scheme. As previously reported by Mortgage Fraud Blog, the scenario involved undisclosed, additional fees charged to Borrowers at closing. The fees were sometimes ultimately paid by Coast of Bank of Florida, the Borrowers and other, and were then split between Coon and MIller. During the pendency of the case, the Borrowers, who were not parties to the criminal case or mentioned in the charging document, sought to testify as victims recognized by the Crime Victims Rights Act ("CRVA") prior to the Judge's consideration of Coon's guilty plea. The CRVA, among other things, gives victims of a crime the opportunity to be heard in the pending case in which they were a victim. The Judge denied the Borrowers' request to testify concluding that they did not meet the requisite elements of a "victim" because the pending case dealt with losses to the bank, not the borrowers, and therefore, the Bank, not the Borrowers was the victim of the offense charged in the indictment.
The Borrowers petitioned the court for a writ of mandamus asking the appellate court to declare them "victims". The appellate court utimately agreed with the Borrowers and granted their writ concluding that they were "victims" because they were responsible for paying closing costs in which the unlawful fees were hidden.
Rachel Dollar, the editor of Mortgage Fraud Blog is an attorney and Certified Mortgage Banker who handles litigation for lending institutions and secondary market investors.