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CHARLESTON -- West Virginia Attorney General Darrell McGraws office has taken action against a California-based company for alleged fraudulent loan modification claims.McGraws Consumer Protection Division has filed a petition to enforce a subpoena against National Relief Group for allegedly defrauding a Glen, W.Va., homeowner by misrepresenting that it would obtain a mortgage loan modification and illegally charging advance fees for the service.

- California  homeowners continue to have trouble getting home loan modifications that stick under the Obama Administrations Home Affordable Mortgage Program, according to a report released Tuesday by the California Reinvestment Coalition, a consumer advocacy organization whose members provide foreclosure counseling.
The findings of the report suggest that modifications are still hard to come by, and that servicers have not corrected many of the problems that have led to investigations of foreclosure abuses, the coalition wrote in summarizing its findings after it reviewed data the Treasury made public earlier this year and its own latest survey of nonprofit housing counselors.

A Howell businesswoman admitted Friday to charging customers money upfront for loan-modification services, but she denied failing to perform the services promised and denied pocketing any money.

The Michigan attorney general’s office had initially charged Michelle Rene Garbuschewski; her Howell business Elite Mortgage Relief; and her partner, Lisa Marie Joboulian of Northville; with felony charges of obtaining at least $1,000 but less than $20,000 under false pretenses.

However, those charges were dismissed Friday and the women were arraigned on misdemeanor charges of violating the Credit Services Protection Act for allegedly illegally charging homeowners facing foreclosure upfront fees for mortgage-modification assistance. The charge carries a penalty of up to 93 days in jail and up to $1,000 fine.

“We took money upfront,” Garbuschewski said Friday in a telephone interview.