The U.S. Senate: Release Jeffrey St. Martin

Big Banks gambled with the nation’s economy through overvalued real estate securities on Wall Street. Their reward was a 700 billion dollar bailout to be paid back by hard working Americans. The subprime mortgage subsidiaries of the Big Banks used negligent and deceptive lending practices to allow Americans to overextend their credit worthiness. Again Big Banks have avoided responsibility. Instead, individuals like Jeffrey St. Martin have been criminalized and prosecuted for the faulty policies of America’s real estate lending institutions.

                Jeffrey St. Martin was sentenced to six years in prison for helping middle class Americans obtain subprime mortgage loans. These loans were secured via the banks extraordinarily lenient and aggressive credit based loan programs. Jeff enjoyed working in real estate. He was able to help clients achieve their dreams of home ownership. Jeff followed the loan guidelines defined and verified by the banks he worked through. What he didn’t understand was that the loans he helped negotiate were expected to default. Mortgage lenders packaged subprime loans issued to overburdened borrowers as Wall Street securities. (CNBC – The Power and the Peril http://www.cnbc.com/id/37274104 ) When these loans defaulted, the banks made huge profits. In fact, the banks made more profit on a defaulted loan than on a loan maintained in good standing-a viciously ingenious plan in which the banks never lost.

                The Prosecutors of Cuyahoga County have kept this trend going. Instead of pursuing subprime mortgage lenders for their wrong doings, these prosecutors have surmised the blame should fall on their citizens, from buyers to sellers and everyone in between. Thousands of law abiding citizens have been hounded and harassed into accepting criminal wrong doing and pleading guilty to crimes never committed. The banks took advantage to generate record profits. Cuyahoga County, Ohio has followed behind with pressured guilty pleas that have reaped hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines; a cruel form of double jeopardy.

                According to these Prosecutors, the culprits of Cuyahoga County Ohio’s real estate collapse are teachers, grandparents, care givers, single mothers, business professionals and other law abiding citizens. Jeffrey St. Martin is a loving, devoted, and hardworking husband and father of five children.

                He was sentenced to prison because the Prosecutors of Cuyahoga County Ohio felt he led such individuals in a mortgage crime syndicate for the purpose of defrauding subprime mortgage lenders. The prosecutors of Cuyahoga County even charged Jeff’s wife and mother-in-law as co-conspirators. The Prosecutors of Cuyahoga County succeeded in coercing Jeff to plead guilty with threats of imprisoning his wife and mother-in-law. Instead of investigating the subprime mortgage banks, the Prosecutors of Cuyahoga County have spent their time and resources threatening to tear innocent families apart, like Jeff’s, as the solution to America’s real estate bust.

                As a very young man Jeffrey St. Martin committed a crime, he accepted full responsibility and served his full jail sentence.  Upon his release he found that matriculating back into the work force was not easy with a criminal record.   Mortgage Brokerage industry was where he was given a chance and he stuck with it, finding it a rewarding career.

                The guilty pleas of Jeff and his so-called criminal enterprise of law abiding mothers, grandmothers, fathers, teachers, care givers, and business professionals have yielded fines in excess of $200,000. According to court documents, the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office is to directly receive a large portion of these prosecutorial profits. Jeff and his co-defendants only represent one of hundreds of similar mortgage fraud cases. Like the sub-prime mortgage lenders, the Prosecutors of Cuyahoga County have found a way to monetarily benefit from America’s citizens.

                Jeff is currently appealing his case. He will soon have a hearing to determine if he may be eligible to receive a bond in order to be released from prison and rejoin his family during his ongoing legal battle. While Jeff has been away his mother has passed away and his brother was diagnosed with cancer and is currently undergoing chemotherapy treatment.  Please sign this petition in support of his release. Jeff is only one of thousands who have been adversely affected in Cuyahoga County, Ohio. Help his victory reveal the injustice of Cuyahoga County’s flawed Mortgage fraud prosecutorial process.

PLEASE SIGN YOUR NAME TO THE ATTACHED LETTER AND HELP JEFFREY COME HOME:

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