Sweta Patel, in her own words…

I was excited to start a new beginning when I decided to move to Las Vegas. I worked extremely hard to climb the corporate ladder. 

It wasn’t easy but I was saving to buy my dream home. I saved over thirteen years. In October 2020, I started shopping for lenders that would pre-qualify me for the home. 

One lender, Habiba Bakous from Fairway Independent Mortgage came highly recommended.  She also mentioned that she could get me the best deal in town. In March 2021, Habiba informed me that the IRS took back all loan programs and she couldn’t qualify me. This put me in a tough spot because I only had 15 days before closing and all the other lenders could not work with me after their February cutoff date. 

Habiba mentioned that she had one other option and that was to obtain help from her partner Albert Peres. She drove me to his house, and he talked about how he’d be able to help me. 

She then had me wire him everything I owned (over $260,000) and told me I would be ready to move into my home in 10 days. 

She mentioned many times that my money was protected, and that Albert Peres is an honest man. I thought I could trust her because she was a licensed mortgage lender working for Fairway Independent Mortgage. When 10 days passed and I didn’t hear from Habiba, I was concerned. She told me I should obtain a PPP loan because the process was taking longer than expected.

This is when I realized that Albert Peres and Habiba Bakous were in this together. I called the police department, Nevada Mortgage Division, Attorney General’s office, FTC, FBI, Nevada Secretary of State office, along with many other government agencies. I was astonished that someone got away with defrauding me of everything I owned. 

None of these government agencies did a thing to help me. It got me wondering a lot about how the public is protected… or are they? Then I interviewed 60 lawyers to find one that would help me on contingency. I’ve lost everything, and I have come to terms with the fact that I have to start over. 

This can happen to anyone. If I could go back in time I would have done an extensive background check on all these people. You are never protected, and you can’t trust anyone. 

Deception can happen to anyone and there are many desperate people out there that would do anything to fool you and take you for everything you own.