LANSING | Three people face felony charges after police claim they committed mortgage fraud against an elderly Lansing couple.
Nellie Briggs, 45, of Glenwood, and Lorie Westerfield, 44, of Chicago, were charged with financial identify theft over $100,000, and Winston Pulliam, 56, of Chicago,?was charged with felony theft over $100,000, Detective Lt. Dan Sylvester said.
Their Feb. 4 arrests marked the culmination of a two-year mortgage fraud investigation by Lansing Detective Chuck Weeden, working with the Cook County state's attorney's office, Sylvester said.
"The house involved in Lansing belonged to a retired couple," he said. "The husband was on disability after losing a leg and they were in dire financial straits, and what these folks were doing was going out and preying upon people in dire financial waters and offering to refinance or consolidate loans, siphoning off the monies for their own usage. They threw an anchor to a drowning person. It was pretty despicable." ?
The Lansing couple have not yet lost their home, but are still facing financial difficulty, he said. A lot of people just move out and let these cases go, Sylvester said. It took courage for them to come forward to police, he said.
"Basically, the homeowner called us regards to someone saying they were going to foreclose their home and put it up for sale. And they had no idea what was going on. As far as they knew, they signed papers to where they were going to get refinanced," he said.
According to the Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission of the Supreme Court of Illinois Web site, Westerfield is not authorized to practice law and has a record.
"Ms. Westerfield, who was licensed in 1995, was suspended on an interim basis and until further order of the court," it states. "She was convicted of federal wire fraud after she participated in a scheme to cause individuals experiencing financial problems to sell their homes as part of a lease-back arrangement. She was sentenced to a five-year term of probation and was ordered to pay restitution of $116,147 to a defrauded bank."
