Victims of Petaluma mortgage scammer decry plea bargain

Victims of a former Petaluma real estate agent accused of bilking dozens of cash-strapped homeowners in a mortgage fraud scheme blasted a plea bargain Thursday that has allowed him to keep his home and remain free of jail.

Miguel Angel Lopez-Soleta, 44, was charged last year with 65 felonies accusing him of ripping off clients for a combined $250,000 through his Rohnert Park business, Mortgage Modifiers. He settled the case this fall with an agreement to pay back about $100,000 and serve a year of work release or electronic home confinement.

But at his sentencing hearing Thursday, victims claiming they lost their retirement savings and in some cases their homes, expressed outrage at what they called a light punishment. Many said Lopez-Soleta deserves prison for embezzling from vulnerable people, including the elderly, and ruining so many lives.

“This man is a mastermind of working the system,” said Daniel Steele of Santa Rosa, who lost thousands of dollars in a refinance deal with Lopez-Soleta in 2012.

Sonoma County Superior Court Judge Robert LaForge said he is bound by the agreement between Caroline S. Chen, a deputy attorney general, and Lopez-Soleta’s lawyer, Kristin Long.

But he said there is no guarantee Lopez-Soleta will remain out of custody. He must apply to jail officials for work release or home confinement and they could say no, he said.

The judge set a turn-in date of Jan. 12. Additional restitution will be considered at a future hearing.

“You’ve done significant damage to many people, financially, but I’m seeing also personally,” LaForge told Lopez-Soleta.

Lopez-Soleta’s lawyer argued her client would be able to pay back more victims if he remains out of custody and keeps his job. He works as a used car salesman in Sunnyvale.

Also, she said her client has been able to keep his home - described by victims as a “lavish, equestrian estate” - because his assets were frozen by prosecutors. It was unclear if that would change now that he is sentenced.

Chen would not answer questions. The case was handled by a special fraud task force of the Attorney General’s Office.

Records show Lopez-Soleta and his wife, Heidi Beth Marks-Lopez, filed for bankruptcy in 2014, asking the court to discharge more than $3 million in debt. The filing identifies 537 creditors, many of whom said they owned homes in the North Bay and that Lopez-Soleta took thousands of dollars from them.

Lopez-Soleta declined to comment as he left the courthouse.

During the hearing, he sat in a gray suit with his back to the audience as victims told their stories to the judge.

Many said they were referred to him by friends. For a $1,195 fee, he promised to modify home loans, knocking hundreds of dollars off monthly mortgage payments. He also promised refunds if he failed to deliver.

But in many cases, he took people’s money and did nothing, stringing them along for months.

Carole Salomon-Bryant of Petaluma said she waited 14 months, only to find out the bank had denied her refinance request shortly after she made it. As a result of waiting, her mortgage payment jumped by $700 and she and her elderly husband are now forced to move out.

She called Lopez-Soleta a “sociopath who shows no remorse.” And she criticized a justice system that would allow “this man to serve his time in his mansion as I prepare to leave my simple home.”

You can reach Staff Writer Paul Payne at 707-568-5312 or paul.payne@pressdemocrat.com.