PLANO, Texas (CN) - Federal prosecutors accuse four Texans and a Brit of "a combination foreclosure rescue/drug distribution scheme" that sent banks false military orders to stop foreclosures, and converted one house into a marijuana farm with more than 1,000 plants.
Facing an 18-count indictment are Charles Williams, 37; Jarrod Williams, 33; Julius Williams, 41; all of McKinney, Jemilat Williams, 33, of Missouri City; and Christopher Carter, 33, of Leicester, England, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.
The Williams clan controlled and operated Applied Investment Strategies, a purported foreclosure rescue service, according to counts one to 17.
"However, once retained by their customers, AIS fraudulently used their customers' personal identification information to prepare and send false military orders to lending institutions in order to claim relief from foreclosure efforts under the Servicemember's Civil Relief Act," prosecutors said in a statement. "AIS then leased out the homes and collected the rental payments for its benefit."
The scheme involved about 38 homes and also tried to stop repossession of cars, prosecutors said.
"According to count 18 of the indictment, after at least one of the fraudulently acquired properties was vacated, Charles Williams, Jarrod Williams, Julius Williams, and Christopher Carter turned it into a marijuana grow operation that housed in excess of 1,000 marijuana plants," prosecutors said in the statement.
If convicted, for each of the first 10 counts, the four Williams defendants face up to 20 years in federal prison. For each of counts 11 through 17, Charles Williams and Jarrod Williams face a mandatory 2 years in federal prison, to run consecutively with any other sentence. For count 18, Charles Williams, Jarrod Williams, Julius Williams, and Carter face up to life in federal prison.
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