During the first part of 2009, Marlon Hernandez found himself in increasingly dire financial circumstances. His adjustable-rate mortgage payments climbed higher, and despite working two jobs, he struggled to keep up. When a pre-foreclosure notice arrived, he became attuned to advertisements on Spanish radio offering loan modification assistance.
These ads led the Malden resident, along with at least 16 other Latinos, to seek help at the offices of Attorney David Zak on Yeamans Street in Revere.
“That’s when the nightmare started,” Hernandez recalled this week.
What followed was a pattern of broken promises, persuasive reassurances that dismissed every concern, and an initial $5,600 payment for services never rendered.
Justice came last week when the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination (MCAD) ruled in favor of Hernandez and 16 other complainants. The case exposed Zak’s deliberate strategy: he had established his Revere practice specifically to exploit distressed Latino homeowners pursuing loan modifications. Internal evidence revealed Zak viewed these clients as “stupid” and “gullible.” The Chelsea Collaborative and attorneys from Greater Boston Legal Services proved instrumental in bringing this case forward.
The MCAD ordered Zak to pay $233,600 in fines.
Commissioner Sunila Thomas-George characterized the conduct harshly: “Attorney Zak engaged in conduct that can only be described as despicable. When tough times hit and hard-working families struggle to pay the mortgage, the last thing they need is to have a lawyer defraud them out of thousands of dollars by exploiting their limited English proficiency. The $233,600 judgment should stand as a warning to everyone that there are serious consequences for engaging in discriminatory conduct.”
MCAD Hearing Officer Betty Waxman determined that Zak generated tens of thousands of dollars by preying on the fear and uncertainty created by the housing collapse among Latino homeowners, ultimately putting them at greater risk of foreclosure.
Waxman found that Zak specifically targeted Latinos through deceptive advertisements for mortgage modification services and misled Spanish and Portuguese-speaking clients with false and unrealistic promises about obtaining substantial loan modifications.
The evidence demonstrated that Zak chose Revere because he viewed its Latino community as “easy targets” and susceptible to manipulation. He used radio and written Spanish and Portuguese advertisements to contact struggling homeowners, falsely claiming he had rescued hundreds from foreclosure, pledging to halve their monthly payments, asserting he was the sole Massachusetts attorney capable of executing loan modifications, and claiming to possess a “secret formula” and “magic numbers” inaccessible to competitors. He even retained a “Coordinator of the Latino Market” tasked with exploiting her community connections to recruit agents and clients.
Hernandez harbored doubts initially. The radio advertisements seemed implausible, he acknowledged, yet Zak held an active law license and his pitch seemed credible. “At the time, the presentation was very professional and believable,” Hernandez explained. “Now, I wouldn’t believe it, but it looked real. I was all about the documents and about seeing paperwork and finding out what they had done. They showed me all of this correspondence with banks where they had lowered payments – showing me the before and after payments. There was a whole stack of them I looked at. Now we find out all of that wasn’t true. I looked at all the documents and none of it was real, but I didn’t know that.”
As months passed without updates and bank pressure mounted, Hernandez grew increasingly uneasy. He requested multiple meetings with Zak that were consistently cancelled and sent numerous letters requesting information.
Eventually Hernandez visited the office in person and demanded to meet with Zak.
“There were a lot of people waiting and one old lady that didn’t speak English and was only saying, ‘My house, my house,’ and the staff was being very abusive to her,” he recounted. “I just got a really, really bad feeling the way (Zak) was talking to her with no respect.”
After forcing his way past the reception area, Hernandez was quickly ejected from the office. That moment of rejection confirmed his worst suspicions.
“I told him I thought he should finish the job he started for me,” Hernandez said. “He told me ‘I don’t give a (expletive deleted) what you think.’ That stunned me. I had paid him so much money and he’s talking to me like that? I don’t know if I was going to cry or hurt the guy. I just stood there paralyzed. Nobody was there for us; just a bunch of clients looking at each other. He told me to leave. I was crying and I knew I wasn’t the only one.”
Complaints flooded into the Chelsea Collaborative. In total, they documented 65 complaints, including one man who lost $8,000, his house, and was residing in his vehicle.
Gladys Vega, Collaborative Director, reflected on the outcome: “This was a great victory for us and a case that, without the Collaborative organizing, would have never been accomplished. When we took this case, [Zak] sued the Collaborative for $2 million dollars for defamation of character and we were found not guilty. And now, three years later, this is the result of all that effort.”
Greater Boston Legal Services (GBLS) handled representation for all 17 Latino victims, with each complaint forwarded to the organization.
Lead attorney Nadine Cohen of GBLS stated: “The Latino homeowners who were victimized feel vindicated and are grateful for the opportunity to tell their story and be heard.”
Among other findings, Waxman determined that Zak imposed excessive and redundant fees for services available elsewhere at no cost, pressured clients to intentionally default on mortgages, provided inadequate document translations, misrepresented case status, delivered substandard work often failing to produce promised modifications, withheld appropriate refunds, and engaged in threatening, intimidatory, and demeaning behavior.
Based on testimony and evidence, Waxman concluded that Zak’s actions constituted discrimination. She awarded $116,600 in compensatory damages to 17 victims and $107,000 in emotional distress damages to 12 complainants. Given the severity and illegality of his conduct, Zak received an additional $10,000 civil penalty.
For Hernandez, the financial restitution represents vindication, though the consequences have been permanent. He filed for bankruptcy as a direct result of Zak’s actions and lost his home in the process.
“I just wanted an affordable mortgage; I didn’t want to live for free,” he reflected. “However, the bank said I lost all my legal rights when I filed bankruptcy. They don’t consider me the homeowner any longer and said I had lost the rights to my home. It’s not just me though. That’s the worst part. The $5,600 for me is nothing. There were hundreds of people who paid $12,000 or more. A lot of people were afraid to talk or intimidated by him. I’m glad I did what so many were afraid to do. Whatever happened; it happened, but it’s better to go down fighting, and we fought for this one.”
The Massachusetts Attorney General continues pursuing a case against Zak while the Board of Bar Overseers conducts ongoing proceedings regarding his law license.