WASHINGTON — Two Virginia men have been charged with conspiring to defraud thousands of distressed homeowners who thought they were hiring a legal firm to help them avoid foreclosure, according to the Department pf Justice (DOJ).
The indictment charged four people, including two lawyers: David Maresca, 48, of Manassas, Virginia, Scott Marinelli, 51, of Mountainside, New Jersey, Sam Babbs, III, 41, of Orlando, Florida, and Terrylle Blackstone, 35, of Woodbridge, Virginia.
Maresca was the founder of Synergy Law LLC, in D.C., which he formed in 2016, and Themis Law PLLC, opened in 2019. Marinelli, who was licensed in New Jersey, owned 10% of Synergy; Babbs, who was licensed in Florida and D.C., owned his own firm – Babbs Law Firm P.L. – and 10% of Themis. Blackstone worked for all three firms.
Maresca, Marinelli, and Blackstone were also charged with five counts of mail fraud; Maresca, Babbs, and Blackstone with three counts of wire fraud and two counts of mail fraud; and Maresca with five counts of monetary transactions in criminally-derived property, and two counts of falsification of bankruptcy records, the DOJ filings say.
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