Adan L. Cueva
Three Lyndhurst residents have been arrested on theft by deception charges, Bergen County Prosecutor John L. Molinelli announced today.
Adan R. Cueva, 31, Lyndhurst; Adan L. Cueva, 57, of Lyndhurst; and Angel C. Cueva-Castro, 26, of Lyndhurst, were also charged with other fraud-related offenses, Molinelli said.
The charges are the result of an investigation by members of the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office’s White Collar Crimes Unit under the direction of Chief Steven Cucciniello of the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office and the Morris County Prosecutor’s Office under the direction of Chief John Speirs, Molinelli said.
Reports say members of the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office White Collar Crimes Unit received information from the Lyndhurst Police Department that Adan R. Cueva, the owner of Time Consulting & Associates, at 298 Ridge Road, Lyndhurst, along with his father, Adan L. Cueva, and his brother, Angel C. Cueva-Castro, were involved in an alleged scheme to defraud innocent homeowners who hired Time Consulting to modify their existing mortgages.
Reports say the investigation revealed that Adan R., a former mortgage loan professional, had victims sign contracts with Time Consulting & Associates with the promise of reducing their mortgage payments and lowering their interest rates to 2 percent. Time Consulting charged a fee between $3,500 and $5,000, Molinelli said.
Typically Adan R. would also require $1,500 down and spread out the balance in increments of $500 each month, the report said.
Once victims signed and paid the upfront fee to Time Consulting & Associates, Adan R. would require them to fill out information statements with detailed personal identify information, according to reports.
At that time, the victims were allegedly instructed to immediately stop making mortgage payments to their mortgage lenders and make the monthly mortgage payments to Time Consulting & Associates, according to Molinelli.
Adan R. allegedly told the victims that his company would forward the mortgage payments to their banks and further, that he would negotiate on their behalf for lower monthly mortgage payments, according to reports.
Adan R. allegedly failed to forward these payments to the respective banks, causing the banks to place the loans in default, according to reports. He also is believed to have instructed the victims to provide their banks with the telephone number of Time Consulting & Associates as their contact number.
In addition, the victims were asked to forward all correspondence from their banks to Time Consulting & Associates. In most cases, the victims were not in arrears but having difficulty keeping up with the monthly mortgage payments due to high interest rates, Molinelli said.
The investigation further revealed employees of Time Consulting & Associates — including Angel C. Cueva-Castro, allegedly impersonated the victims when the banks called for the purpose of stalling any adverse bank action while Time Consulting & Associates continued to collect mortgage payments from the victims, reports said.
Adan L. Cueva, Molinelli said, was responsible for collection of payments in cash at victims’ homes or places of business and providing a pre-signed receipt from Adan R. Cueva.
In addition, Adan R. Cueva allegedly instructed his employees to use the victims’ personal information to open credit-card accounts using the Time Consulting & Associates address.
The credit cards were for Adan R. Cueva’s personal use, according to reports.
According to reports, numerous victims complained to Adan R. Cueva about their homes being placed in default. The victims were then advised by Adan R. Cueva they had been approved by their banks for a trial period of lower mortgage payments, and were provided fraudulent letters from banks.
Adan R. Cueva failed to forward the mortgage payments to the respective banks and continued to keep the money for personal use, Molinelli said. He was also able to fraudulently collect payments from victims for over a year before the banks foreclosed on the homes, reports said.
On April 4, Adan R. Cueva was arrested at his home by members of the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office and charged with Theft By Deception, Trafficking in Personal Identifying Information, Failure to Make Required Disposition of Property Received, Impersonating Another, Misconduct of a Corporate Official and Conspiracy to Commit Theft by Deception.
He was remanded to the Bergen County Jail in lieu of $500,000 bail with no 10-percent option.
Also on April 4, 2013 Angel C. Cueva-Castro was arrested outside the offices of Time Consulting and Associates by members of the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office and charged with Theft By Deception, Trafficking in Personal Identifying Information, Failure to Make Required Disposition of Property Received, Impersonating Another and Conspiracy to Commit Theft by Deception.
He was remanded to the Bergen County Jail in lieu of $500,000 bail with no 10-percent option.
On April 4, 2013 Adan L. Cueva was also arrested outside the offices of Time Consulting and Associates by members of the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office and charged with Theft By Deception, Trafficking in Personal Identifying Information and Conspiracy to Commit Theft by Deception.
He was remanded to the Bergen County Jail in lieu of $500,000 bail with no 10-percent option.
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Kevin A. Canessa Jr. is the editor of and broadcaster at The Observer, a place where he has served on and off since 2006. He is responsible for the editorial content of the newspaper and website, the production of the e-Newspaper, writing several stories per week (including the weekly editorial), conducting live broadcasts on Facebook Live, including a weekly recap of the news — and much more behind the scenes. Between 2006 and 2008, he introduced the newspaper to its first-ever blog — which included podcasts, audio and video. Originally from Jersey City, Kevin lived in Kearny until 2004, lived in Port St. Lucie. Florida, for four years until February 2016 and in March of that year, he moved back to West Hudson to return to The Observer full time. Click Here to send Kevin an email.