The U.S. Trustee Program (USTP) has secured sanctions against four individuals involved in a fraudulent scheme to file bankruptcy petitions using the forged signature of a deceased person. The scheme aimed to delay foreclosure proceedings and gain control of real property.
On February 20, the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Georgia ruled against Emanuel Clark, Charles Freeman Jr., Patrick Iverson, and Jacquelyn Duffy. The court found that the four individuals submitted four forged bankruptcy petitions in the name of a person who had died over a year earlier. Each petition temporarily halted a scheduled foreclosure sale on the deceased individual’s property, which had been fraudulently transferred to a company controlled by Clark.
The court determined that the individuals knowingly committed fraud and barred them from filing further bankruptcy petitions unless they are the named debtor or the debtor’s attorney. The ruling also highlighted the USTP’s role in uncovering a broader pattern of abuse, including the filing of suspicious property deeds and skeletal bankruptcy petitions, often in the names of deceased individuals.
“These four swindlers abused the bankruptcy system to fraudulently obtain property and obstruct a creditor’s rights,” said Mary Ida Townson, U.S. Trustee for Region 21, which includes the Northern District of Georgia. “We will aggressively pursue bad-faith actors to protect the integrity of the bankruptcy system for those who genuinely need relief.”
