Two Bay Area Men Sentenced for Foreclosure Consultant Fraud

Two Bay Area men convicted of one felony count of foreclosure consultant fraud were sentenced to 90 days in jail Friday after paying more than $40,000 in restitution, according to the Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office.

Cary Jay Silberman, 53, of San Jose and Robert Francis Childs, 44, of Dublin paid restitution in the amounts of $16,745 and $23,345, respectively, to a total of 14 victims, according to the district attorney's office. As a condition of probation, the men were ordered not to provide loan modification services.

Silberman was also convicted of one misdemeanor count of unauthorized practice of law. Prosecutors say Silberman represented to people that he was a lawyer; Silberman resigned from the state bar in 1997.

Prosecutors say Childs gave seminars to real estate offices and groups of agents in the Bay Area, notably in Santa Clara County and Contra Costa County. Under the business name "Pro Family Financial Systems," Childs primarily marketed himself as a debt counselor and referred loan modifications to Silberman, who operated a business called "Loan Deal," which sold loan modification services.

Prosecutors say Silberman and Childs collected money up front from clients for loan modifications.

The district attorney's office advises homeowners to never pay an advance fee for loan modifications. The Foreclosure Consultants Act makes it a crime for anyone, even an attorney or real estate agent, to collect advance fees to perform loan modification services on a mortgage secured by the borrower's primary residence. Contact a HUD-certified foreclosure counselor by logging on at http://hud.gov or by calling the Foreclosure Help Hotline at 408-794-1242.

Contact Mark Gomez at 408-920-5869.

LED Lighting Company Added a Second Regular Contributor to its Company Blog

Elemental LED, a San Francisco Bay Area-based LED lighting company, recently added a second regular contributor to its company blog. Michael Gutman began blogging twice per week at the start of August 2011 for Elemental LED on topics that focus on San Francisco Bay Area green businesses and sustainability news and progress.

"I am thrilled to be blogging about sustainability in the Bay Area for Elemental LED, a company whose environmental values mirror my own," says Gutman. "Partnering with them will get us all closer to getting the word out about how easy and necessary it is to cut down on waste and energy consumption."

Gutman's recent blog topics have included how green energy accreditations have impacted some Bay Area companies, and a green organization profile about The Ecology Center in Berkeley. Upcoming topics include environmental news about San Francisco, Oakland and California job creation.

The addition of Gutman to the Elemental LED blog is part of a company plan to promote the blog and reach a greater audience. "We have been very proud of the quality of content on our blog during the past year, and we believe LED lighting and sustainability are complementary topics our readers will enjoy and engage with us on," says Elemental LED Marketing Manager Charlotte Dick.

Gutman joins Christine Spehar, who has been blogging for Elemental LED three times per week on topics that focus on LED innovations, technology, news and art. With two regular contributors, readers can now enjoy fresh, original content five to six days per week. The addition of Gutman as a regular contributor to the blog expands the breadth of its topics, making it less focused solely on LED lighting and more on sustainable technologies in general.

Spehar has produced over 150 blog posts during the past year on topics ranging from new LED light bulbs and technological innovations at Cree, LED lighting creations at large art and music festivals like Coachella and Burning Man, and large-scale, public LED lighting retrofits in cities like Seattle, NYC and Las Vegas.

"Blogging about LED news, technology and art for Elemental LED has opened me up to a fascinating, fast-paced industry, says Spehar. "It is exciting to learn about how LED lighting is progressing, and I love sharing what I learn with Elemental LED readers."

To learn more about the Elemental LED blog, read recent posts, and search the index of over 400 past posts, please visit www.elementalled.com/leducation/blog.

About Elemental LED

Elemental LED is where style and affordability meet sustainable lighting. Elemental LED offers a wide selection of LED lighting products for home and business owners, including LED strip lights, light bars, puck lights, wall washers, light bulbs, controllers, power supplies and more. Products include color-changing, dimming and waterproof functionality. Elemental LED offers in house engineering and comprehensive customer service and education, from live phone support to online tutorials. LED lighting technology is the safest, hippest, and most energy efficient way to light up the world. Learn more at www.elementalled.com.

Market's Reaction to the Standard and Poor's Credit Downgrade

The market's reaction to the Standard and Poor's credit downgrade may be just the beginning. The financial impact could stay with us for months to come, making almost anything we do, buy or consume, more expensive.

That prospect actually has some people in the Bay area making big financial decisions now.

For example, as the Chief Financial Officer of her family's Tampa-based business, Patricia Evans decided now is the time to buy the fleet vehicle they've been shopping for.

"We would have to pay that higher interest rate, unfortunately," she says of the possible rate-hike. "We're small business owners, so we only have so much allocated for vehicles and income and payroll."

Evans knows that the S&P credit downgrade for the U.S. government from AAA to AA+  means higher interest rates may be on the way. 

So the same vehicle, even at the same price, could cost a few dollars more a month to finance in just a few weeks.

"With the economy, a few dollars a month makes a big difference these days," she says.

It was the same thing for Traci and Mark Meng, signing papers on a new home in Port Tampa. No longer on the sidelines, the couple decided to do the deal now, to avoid an interest rate hike.

"Yes, we rushed this weekend to go ahead and close the deal," said Traci.

"The door opens up, you gotta walk through it for opportunity. You've got to," added Mark, "Unfortunately the economy isn't gonna get any better, it's gonna get worse."

Conventional wisdom has it that the downgrade to U.S. debt could increase interest rates by as much as a .5% over the next few weeks.

Mark Zandi, an analyst with Moody's Investments, thinks it may even be a bit less.

"I don't think rates would rise overwhelmingly, but they would rise," he says.

So what does that mean on a bigger purchase?

On a $200,000 home loan, a .5% rate hike is more than $60 a month, $720 a year, or $21,000 more in total payments over the course of a 30-year loan.

Higher rates also mean higher costs for products and services as manufacturers pass along the higher cost of borrowing to their customers.

Credit card debt, or any debt with variable rates, could also rise.

Student loans too. 

And with less expendable income to buy goods and services, that, say economists, will likely slow the economy further, leading to fewer jobs. 

The non-partisan group "Third Way" estimates a half point rate increase will eliminate 640,000 jobs at a time when the nation's economy can least afford it.

One small, silver lining could be dramatically lower prices at the pump. 

The global slowdown had traders speculating on a lower demand for oil, pushing oil prices below $81 a barrel in Monday's trading.

If it stays there, it should translate to gasoline prices well below $3 per gallon.