VENTURA, California – District Attorney Gregory D. Totten announced today that Oxnard resident Michael McDevitt (DOB 11/24/81) pleaded guilty to felony grand theft, tax evasion and foreclosure consultant fraud. The charges are the result of an investigation conducted by the District Attorney’s Real Estate Fraud Unit and the Franchise Tax Board (FTB).
McDevitt operated a fraudulent loan modification company called Scovis Law Group (SLG) in Thousand Oaks, California. Throughout 2010 and 2011, SLG represented that it was an expert in the field of loan modifications despite the illegality of collecting up-front fees in return for these services. In their solicitations for illegal advance fees, McDevitt and his agents made numerous false representations to victims regarding purported loan modifications. In addition to receiving no actual services, the five named victims’ losses were approximately $29,000.
The FTB investigation determined that McDevitt failed to disclose $67,818 in taxable income for 2009 and failed to report $718,197 in taxable income for 2010. McDevitt is expected receive 16 months in state prison when he is sentenced on September 3, 2015, at 8:30 a.m. in courtroom 26.