CONCORD – A Nashua real estate agent is charged with swindling distressed homeowners and mortgage lenders with a home refinancing scam.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Gunnison filed a charge of aiding and abetting mail fraud against Richard Winefield, 32, of 6 Short Ave., Nashua, on Feb. 8.

The charge states that Winefield joined in the scheme “already in progress” in 2006, but doesn’t name any alleged co-conspirators, and Gunnison could not be reached for comment. Winefield’s lawyer, Peter McGrath of Concord, did not return a call from The Telegraph on Monday, and Winefield declined to comment on the case.

A waiver of indictment and plea hearing was set for March 1, suggesting that Winefield has struck a plea deal.

Gunnison claims that Winefield, an agent with RE/MAX Properties in Nashua, set up several limited liability companies in order to swindle both homeowners facing foreclosure and mortgage lenders through a scheme of refinancing and sham “straw purchases.”

Although the indictment doesn’t name the companies, records with the New Hampshire secretary of state’s office show that Winefield created several real estate-related limited liability companies in 2006 and 2007, two in partnership with Michael Prieto and one with Walter Bressler III, both of whom were sanctioned by the state Banking Commission for similar deceptive mortgage practices in 2007.

Winefield advertises himself as a “foreclosure and short sale specialist” on his website, www.dickwinefield.com.

“There are a lot of options for those facing foreclosure. Some good some bad and some outright dangerous,” his website states. “Our team has assisted hundred of area homeowners. Some sold their homes and were forgiven upwards of $100,000 in debt from their mortgage company, while others were able to renegotiate their mortage (sic) and in some cases have entire mortgages forgiven!”

The charge filed by Gunnison states that while working as a licensed real estate agent from the fall of 2006 through October 2007, Winefield concocted a scheme “to defraud and to obtain money and property by means of false and fraudulent pretenses, representations and promises,” and used the U.S. Postal Service to further his scheme.

The charge is called an “information” because it was filed directly by Gunnison, as opposed to an indictment by grand jury.

Winefield and unnamed others “defrauded and obtained money from mortgage lenders by arranging sham real estate transactions and obtaining mortgage loans through straw borrowers,” the charge states.

The scam involved finding distressed homeowners and offering to help them avoid foreclosure by having the homeowners sign over their properties to one of Winefield’s companies, which would then rent the house to the homeowner for two years.

The homeowner would then have the option to buy back the property, at a prearranged price, typically around 30 percent over what it would cost to pay off the homeowner’s mortgage, the charge states.

“In reality, after taking title to the homes of the distressed homeowners, the scheme participants paid off the existing mortgages by obtaining new, usually significantly larger, mortgage loans on the properties, and they immediately converted the additional borrowed money to their own use,” Gunnison wrote. “This stripped most or all of the available equity from the properties and left the properties encumbered with larger mortgages.”

The homeowners’ rental payments went toward payments on the new, bigger loans, the charge states. To get those larger loans, Winefield and his partners arranged “sham transactions” and straw buyers, who included relatives, friends and strangers, who posed as buyers of the properties, the charge states.

The straw buyers purported to pay large sums for the properties, and Winefield arranged appraisals to match the inflated prices, the charge states.

“The scheme participants falsely and fraudulently prepared mortgage applications identifying the straws as borrowers, and submitted the applications to lenders chosen by the scheme participants,” the charge states.

The straw buyers were assured they would never need to pay off the mortgages, despite being named as the borrower, the charge states, and the loan applications were replete with false information.

Gunnison claims that Winefield personally solicited homeowners, determined sales prices for the sham sales, attended closings and at times acted himself as a straw buyer.

All of the limited liability companies Winefield set up in 2006 and 2007 have since been dissolved, with the exception of his own company, Dick Winefield Services LLC.

Along with Michael Prieto, Winefield registered Randolph Management LLC and Mystic Investments and Leasing LLC, both as companies involved in real estate transactions, based at 816 Elm St., Suite 447, Manchester.

Winefield also registered several other companies by himself, using the same address, including Rock Point Management, LLC, to manage cash flow from rental properties, and 57 DUDLRDWEAR LLC and Deer Creek Pass LLC, to rent, lease, buy and sell real estate.

Along with Walter R. Bressler III of Bedford, Winefield registered Houston Finance and Leasing LLC, with the stated purpose to rent, lease, buy, sell and manage real estate, and to loan money secured by real estate.

Bressler and Prieto previously caught the attention of state Banking Department investigators and were among the subjects of a “cease and desist” order by Commissioner Peter Hildreth in 2007. Although Winefield was not named in that case, one of the companies involved, Prieto’s 2Amoskeag5 Realty LLC, was based at 7 Colby Court, Bedford, Apt. 202, in 2005 and 2006, state records show. In 2007, that same apartment was listed as Winefield’s address, according to public records.

Under the Banking Department’s consent order, Bressler, Prieto and Sadie Stanhope, then of Bedford, and the two limited liability companies they controlled were fined $10,000, and ordered to repay eight different homeowners (including two in Nashua) any money that the trio gained from the sale of their properties.

While the consent order states that the business practices and pitches employed by the three individuals and their companies “caused confusion to the public,” the order itself does not clearly describe what they were accused of doing.

However, it appears to have involved selling people’s homes and taking out mortgages on them.

As a result of the order, Bressler, Prieto and Stanhope were all permanently banned from acting as mortgage brokers or engaging a mortgage broker in the residential real estate business in New Hampshire, or from being involved in “debt adjustment” services or businesses in the state.

Andrew Wolfe can be reached at 594-6410 or awolfe@nashuatelegraph.com.