Athena Maldonado, Debt Relief Scheme, California 2023

Athena Maldonado, 30, and Christopher Harati, 31, of Orange County, California, have pleaded guilty to their roles in fraudulent debt relief services companies that preyed on vulnerable consumers.

According to the Justice Department and U.S. Postal Inspection Service (USPIS), the defendants and their co-conspirators portrayed the debt relief companies, Nelson Gamble & Associates (Nelson Gamble) and Jackson Hunter Morris & Knight LLP (Jackson Hunter), as law firms and attorney-based companies that would negotiate favorable settlements with creditors.

Clients made monthly payments expecting the money to go toward settlements, but instead, the companies took an amount equal to at least 15 percent of clients’ total debt as company fees, with the first six months of payments going almost entirely toward undisclosed up-front fees.

“Debt relief service scams prey on vulnerable consumers trying to climb out of tough financial situations,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Benjamin C. Mizer of the Justice Department’s Civil Division. “The Justice Department will aggressively pursue the criminals who operate these schemes.”

Athena Maldonado admitted that she acted as the “legal department” for both companies and used multiple aliases when responding to complaints submitted by state attorney general offices, the Better Business Bureau, and private attorneys.

Christopher Harati admitted that he worked as a client relations manager for the companies and handled complaint calls from clients, falsely stating that Nelson Gamble and Jackson Hunter were separate companies and making other misrepresentations designed to convince customers to stay with the company.

The defendants each face a statutory maximum sentence of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine, or an alternate fine of twice the loss or twice the gain, whichever is greater, along with mandatory restitution. Their sentencing dates have not been set.

On Dec. 3, 2014, a grand jury in Santa Ana, California, returned a 22-count indictment charging Jeremy Nelson, Elias Ponce, and John Vartanian, all of Orange County, for mail fraud, wire fraud, and conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud in the same fraudulent scheme. The trial in that case is scheduled to begin on Feb. 16, 2016, in Los Angeles.

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