Homeowner Rakes Wells Fargo Over the Coals

CENTRAL ISLIP, N.Y. (CN) - Wells Fargo ran the "largest Ponzi scheme in the history of the world," a Long Island man worried about losing his home to foreclosure claims in Federal Court.

The 15-page complaint by George Hourani, of Lawrence, N.Y., wastes no time in explaining the insidious reason why civil tort claims over Wells Fargo's "criminal acts" "have become so commonplace as to seem a redundant rehash of similar suits."

Hourani says his suit "seems cookie-cutter only because the tortuous and criminal acts" at issue "have become so perpetually perpetrated in a cookie-cutter fashion as to appear institutionalized."

"Licensed agents and support staff have been trained and directed in practices and procedures that amount to nothing less than the largest Ponzi scheme in the history of the world," the complaint continues.

Hourani says Well Fargo's actions "amount to nothing less than an ongoing criminal enterprise which is the result of a malignant calculus, bread of an unrestrained hubris, fostered on the public by persons and of such wealth and influence as to render the real culprits beyond the reach of the long arm of American law of plaintiff's claim in this instant case."

"Plaintiff is left with low level minions, indoctrinated in improper practices and procedures through creatively compartmentalized isolation from the full scope of the scheme in which they participate," the complaint continues. "Few of the individual actors are fully aware of the true nature of this carefully crafted criminal connivance in which their predicate acts play an essential part."

A spokeswoman with Wells Fargo has not returned a request for comment.

Hourani says he was subjected to foreclosure proceedings on his house in the spring of 2014.

Despite Hourani's attempts to modify his mortgage payments to stem the sheriff's sale of his home, Wells Fargo sold the property from under him in October, he says.

Hourani says his complaint names only Wells Fargo as a defendant in the interest of "judicial economy," but that the bank's co-conspirators "are welcome to cross complain against any actors they deem appropriate."

He seeks the court's help to block the foreclosure of his home, and restitution for deceptive advertising, breach of fiduciary duty, fraud and unjust enrichment.

Hourani is represented by Montell Figgins in Newark, N.J.

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