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A Takoma Park man who lured financially struggling Maryland homeowners to his company with the promise of saving their homes from foreclosure and instead defrauded them and their mortgage lenders was sentenced to 78 months in prison Sept. 11 in U.S. District Court, according to a press release from the United States Attorney's Office for the District of Maryland.

Michael K. Lewis, 57, was found guilty of conspiracy and bankruptcy fraud in U.S. District Court, according to the release.

From at least 2004 until May 2008, Michael K. Lewis aired television ads targeting struggling homeowners, promising he could improve their credit, save their homes from foreclosure and assist them with bankruptcy, according to the release. When viewers called the toll-free number in the ads, he would schedule a meeting with them for a fee, the release said. At these meetings, he would ask his clients to become MKL Associates and to purchase a variety of costly services, such as the Michael K. Lewis Financial Diet for reducing debt. He also asked them to buy a pre-paid legal plan, income-tax return preparation services and bankruptcy-petition preparation.

Prosecutors allege Michael K. Lewis specifically targeted individuals who owned and had equity in their homes but were facing foreclosure because they couldn't make their monthly mortgage payments. He and his co-conspirators tried to steal the homeowners' equity out of their property by convincing them to sell their property to Earnest Lewis, Michael K. Lewis's brother, and by converting sale proceeds to their private funds, according to the press release.

Prosecutors allege that Michael K. Lewis and his co-conspirators told the homeowners that the company's "lease/buy-back program" would help them keep their homes. Michael K. Lewis and Winston Thomas, a senior loan officer with a mortgage lender, told the homeowners that the "good credit" of Earnest Lewis would be used to temporarily refinance their homes, that they had to sign their homes over to Earnest Lewis and that they could repurchase the homes in roughly one year or once they regained their financial footing, according to the release.

During the interim, homeowners were told they could remain in their homes only by paying inflated "rent" and fees. This money was directly debited from the victims' bank accounts and put into an account belonging to co-conspirator Cheryl Brooke's company "In the House Technologies," the release said. Brooke then made payments to Earnest Lewis and Thomas, with the remaining funds being used by Michael K. Lewis and Brooke for their personal benefit, according to the press release.

Michael K. Lewis met with several homeowners facing foreclosure and provided them with information about bankruptcy, according to the release. He referred several homeowners to Brooke to file bankruptcy-related paperwork as a way to postpone foreclosure proceedings to give them time to participate in the lease/buy-back program, the release said.

In January 2004, Michael K. Lewis was permanently barred from acting as a bankruptcy-petition preparer in Virginia and was ordered to return the fees he had obtained after a judge found that he had filed skeletal bankruptcy cases that provided no benefits to his clients, according to the release.

As part of this case, Michael K. Lewis previously agreed to forfeit more than $2 million in proceeds from criminal activity, according to the release.

His defense attorney, Greenbelt-based Timothy Joseph Sullivan, declined to comment Sept. 11.

His brother, Earnest Lewis, 52, also of Takoma Park, was sentenced to 54 months in prison in August for his role in the scheme. He also agreed to forfeit more than $2 million. His defense attorney, Rockville-based Marc Hall, also declined to comment.

Cheryl Brooke, 52, of Upper Marlboro, and Winston Thomas, 43, of New Carrollton pleaded guilty in April to their participation in the scheme. They both face a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison for the conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Brooke also faces a maximum of five years in prison for bankruptcy fraud, and Thomas faces a maximum sentence of one year in prison for failure to file a federal income-tax return.

Brooke's defense attorney, Riverdale-based Joseph John Gigliotti, also declined to comment. Thomas has been assigned public defense attorney John Chamble, who could not immediately be reached for comment Sept. 11.