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Man In Mortgage Assistance Fraud Case Faces New Charges

Ingham County courthouse building
Kevin Lavery
/
WKAR-MSU
A man involved in a mortgage fraud case faces four new felony charges in Ingham County District Court.

A man who earlier was sentenced to jail in a Michigan mortgage assistance fraud case is facing new charges.

Attorney General Bill Schuette says 54-year-old Steven Barry Ruza of Shelby Township faces four felony charges in Ingham County District Court. Schuette says Ruza committed identity theft in an effort to hide assets that could be used for restitution.

The court says Friday he didn't yet have a lawyer on record.

Ruza owes more than $348,000 in restitution from his earlier case. He pleaded guilty in that case to conducting a criminal enterprise and was sentenced to a year in jail in 2015.

Schuette says Ruza promised people they could obtain mortgage modifications and save their homes from foreclosure but then did nothing, or very little, to obtain mortgage modifications.

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