To help assist my family and I with our first home purchase, we turned to Franklin First Financial. We dealt with Zachary Gaudioso, a loan originator, whom at first hand came off as professional and gave off a friendly air to him. He spoke with such confidence behind his words that my family and I were more than excited and eager to start working with him. How that would all horribly change. We found our dream house after a few months of searching. After making an offer and sorting through the essentials, we were recommended to Franklin First Financial around the end of May 2016. This is where the start of our relationship with Zachary Gaudioso began. Zachary told us to tell our landlord that for the month of June we would be living our month of security seeing as we would no longer be needing the apartment and would be closing on our house within the month's end. He assured us that out of all the closings meaning to happen and that were to come, ours was, "the only closing for sure happening in June". The last week of June came quicker than any of us expected and we had still not been giving a closing date nor were we told that one wouldn't be coming to us, least not up until two days before June 30th. Zachary advised us to then stay at the apartment as we couldn't forcedly be removed, however upon learning that the landlord had already rented the apartment to another family, my own family and I couldn't nor would we leave them frantically searching for a roof over their heads. We went ahead and booked a hotel, for which we were told we would only be needing for the approximately of one to one and a half week, with the promise of getting a reimbursement for such costs. We spent the Fourth of July weekend stressing on when we would hear back from the bank and where we would spend the remaining days if we had not heard back from Zachary yet. When we did hear back from Zachary it was obvious something more was going on then what we were being led to believe. He would go on to give us a different closing date every other week. Within each week came a different complication. One week it was him asking for pictures of our signatures so he could go ahead and forge them. Another was him reminding us that he was going out of his way for us, more so than any other bank would be willing to do. Asking for our individual bank account logins and leaving us feeling unease, our lack of knowledge in this process and his persistence made us extremely uncomfortable by this point. He would ask for documents that had already been sent to him more than once, but were somehow misplaced by his people. It became apparent that this wasn't the same Zachary Gaudioso we were presented to nor were his promises going to be met. The level of unprofessionalism displayed. Going on to refer to the seller's attorney as an, "evil ***. a ***" and constantly trying to sell us on the idea that he was doing my family and I a favor here, as if we weren't rightful clients or even human beings who deserved the respect and fair treatment as many others. Fed up with this and having already spent a month in many different hotels, we decided enough was enough and it was time to look for another bank to get the job done. The hassle Franklin First Financial and Zachary Gaudioso gave us was beyond ridiculous at this point. The real estate company sent one of their realtors to pick up all of our paperwork, an hour drive mind you, only to be told she wouldn't get anything as she wasn't one of the lenders. The realtor was then presented to someone who presented themselves as the VP and promised that by next day tomorrow they would have word on a closing date and if not we would have to go and personally collect our paperwork. Not surprisingly so the bank, Zachary and this supposed VP came up short. My mother, one of the realtors and I made the trip to Franklin First Financial the very second we were out of work. We were made to wait a few minutes in the lobby, when some guy I had never before seen came out and handed a pile of papers to the realtor accompanying us. He never asked for any form of identification nor who or where the lenders were. This seemed strange to me seeing as how they gave the realtor a tough time just the day before because she wasn't one of the lenders. Frustrated by the games the bank seemed to be playing with my family, I asked once more to speak with Zachary Gaudioso. I needed to see his face, to let him know how this had infused with our personal lives, to maybe finally get some answers and to just have this person show their face. I was told Zachary was busy in meetings and that they didn't know how much longer he would be, they expressed how the bank went out of its way to pay for the last two appraisals and finally reaching my breaking point I told this person that my family had to pay thousands because we were left without a home. Expressing how he wasn't made aware of this he introduced himself to us, Anthony Oliveri and then excused himself to go and see if Zachary could come. Finally feeling up to showing himself, Zachary, Anthony, the realtor, my mother and myself were escorted into a conference room. The first thing out of this man's mouth was, "How are you?” I had to *** back my laughter at this one, where to even begin and express all that my family had been through. I broke down in angry and frustrated tears, told them if they knew that my younger brother wouldn't have an elementary school to register to come fall, how I wouldn't be able to reregister to college this coming semester, how my mother was working back to back shifts to make up for the money were wasting on hotels. Money that had been saved to invest in our dream house, and how that very same house we now run the risk of losing. I asked why, why were we given dates after dates when none of it was ever going to happen. Why did he make everything sound so easy and laced his words with the most confidence I've heard in single person. Why weren't we told earlier on that they weren't the bank to get this done? Zachary constantly replied with his own mantra of, "hey, don't shoot the messenger. I'm only the messenger here. I was going by what I was told," he constantly replied remaining me that once again he had done us a favor here and that he gave us his most upright professionalism. EVERYTHING, pouring my heart out to these people and wanting to just have answers went through one ear and out the other. My mother, whose first language isn't English told Zachary herself that his claims of being professional were laughable at best. She pleaded with him to remember how and with which manner he chose to speak about others with us. When he got loud with my mother, accusing her of threatening him, I turned to Anthony Oliveri and asked since when was it professional to reference people who are working on the same deal as me with such disgusting and degrading names. I mentioned how I still had the text messages in which Zachary called the seller's attorney 'an evil ***' and so forth and once again asked Anthony if that was professional? Anthony himself gave us a clear no. Seeing how this wasn't going to go anywhere we left, Anthony Oliveri giving me the promised to email with the contact information to reach their VP so we could talk about the promised reimbursement for the hotel cost, now as well to see if we could get reimbursed for the first appraisal we paid for. Still waiting on that email, by the way. It is now a few weeks left until August reaches its end and my family and I have still been going through hotels because of Franklin First Financial. Our new bank has been able to get more than in a week than Franklin First Financial and Zachary Gaudioso were able to in three months... Franklin First Financials' complete lack of transparency with their clients is of which to leave a sour taste in one's mouth. With failing to do as their slogan says "Closing loans and building relationships", we did not close our loan. However, they did build a relationship, one that is based on lies and false promises of which they will never fulfill. If you value your time and money, save yourself the heartache and find a different bank. Unfortunately, for us we were not forewarned.
The government claimed that as a result of the scheme, Franklin First “deprived HUD of critical loan performance information needed to determine whether Franklin First should remain eligible for participation in the Direct Endorsement Program.” According to the government, Franklin First and its executives also “concealed” the source of the payments to the delinquent borrowers’ mortgages. “In addition, the defendants concealed from HUD the fact that Franklin First was making the loan payments by funneling the payments through a purported charitable organization, the Rainy Day Foundation,” the government said.
Per the terms of the settlement agreement, Franklin First, Assini, Bertman, and Dauro admitted to “making the improper payments and that the payments altered the company’s delinquency and default rates.” As a result of the settlement, Franklin First, Assini, Bertman, and Dauro agreed to pay $1.25 million to resolve the government’s claims.
“This resolution demonstrates our Office’s vigorous pursuit of those who would abuse federal mortgage programs, whether they be companies or individuals,” said United States Attorney Robert Capers. “The significant penalty and defendants’ admissions to wrongdoing help to restore the integrity of the FHA mortgage insurance program.”