San Jose man sentenced to year for grand theft

Hector Ricardo Esquivel, age 32 from San Jose was sentenced  on March 30th to one year in jail after being convicted of six felony counts of grand theft for defrauding homeowners in a mortgage loan modification scam.

Mr. Esquivel pleaded guilty on February 11th of this year. He was arrested back in May of 2009. Prosecutors involved in the case say that Mr. Esquivel scammed thousands of dollars from homeowners in Santa Clara County between 2008 and 2009. Mr. Esquivel continued to work as a Real Estate Agent even after his license to sell real estate had been revoked. He enticed mostly Spanish speaking homeowners into a mortgage loan modification program and then did not provide the services he offered. The homeowners involved lost their homes to foreclosure.

Mr. Esquivel has been ordered to pay restitution by the court in the amount of twenty three thousand six hundred dollars and has been banned from working in real estate or the financial services for three years.