A local real estate agent is facing a lawsuit filed by Rhode Island Attorney General Peter F. Neronha for bilking homeowners with limited English skills out of their homes in a so-called “foreclosure rescue program.”

The suit, filed in Providence County Superior Court, alleges that Seyboth and his colleagues violated the state’s Unfair and Deceptive Trade Practices Act (DTPA).

According to the complaint, Seyboth’s colleagues contacted the Delvas, a Haitian couple who had lived in their Providence home for nearly 30 years. The Delvas, who had limited English skills, defaulted on their mortgage in May 2023 and owed about $61,000 to Wells Fargo. The market value of the home was approximately $450,000. The surplus funds from the foreclosure sale, which would have been approximately $385,000, would have been returned to Delvas.

The Delvas met with an attorney associated with the defendants in July 2023 and signed documents they believed to be a refinancing agreement. But the documents actually transferred the title of their home to Preferred Property Solutions. The defendants allegedly did not provide interpreter or translation services, even though the Delvas requested them.

Attorney General Neronha is seeking civil penalties and injunctions, including voiding the sale and returning the home to the Delvas. He said the defendants “defrauded and exploited a Rhode Island family at risk of losing their home, preying on their financial desperation and limited English language skills.”

Generative artificial intelligence (AI) assisted a What’sUpNewp journalist with the reporting included in this story.