MCALLEN – Three Rio Grande Valley men were arrested on federal wire fraud charges involving a fraudulent mortgage lending scheme.

A criminal complaint was filed Jan. 12 against Guadalupe Artemio Gomez, 31, Luis Antonio Rodriguez, 36, and Rogelio Ramos Jr., 36.

Gomez and Ramos were arrested the following day and they went before a judge.

The case was unsealed Thursday in its entirety as Rodriguez, who was previously incarcerated on unrelated charges, was taken into federal custody. He made his initial appearance before Peter Ormsby Thursday morning and ordered to remain in custody pending further criminal proceedings.

The charges allege they all operated a “second chance” financing business under the name of T.G. and Wealth, Infinite Properties and Me in 3D, focusing on individuals who were financially unable to apply for traditional home financing.

Related Article: Investigation: Valley Families Fall Victim to Home Financing Scheme

The men allegedly offered the individuals financing at a rate of 8.5 percent interest on the principle for a 20-year-term if they could afford a 10 percent down payment on the house of their choice.

Gomez, Rodriguez and Ramos allegedly conducted business in the area of San Antonio by recruiting realtors to funnel prospective home buyers to Infinite Properties.

According to the charges, part of the scheme involved sending fraudulent bank account information through email correspondence to the realtors in order to create the appearance that Infinite Properties had millions of dollars in its accounts to finance the purchase of houses.

Based on the false accounts, realtors allegedly introduced home buyers in need of second chance financing to Infinite Properties.

The criminal complaint alleges buyers entered fraudulent purchase agreements for properties they selected. These buyers made down payments to Infinite Properties to be used toward the purchase of their intended properties and were told closings would occur within 45-60 days, according to the charges.

The charges also allege the closings did not occur and the payments were never used for the purchases of the properties. In August 2016, Infinite Properties allegedly ceased to do business and the victims never received their money back.

Jorge Alvarez was one of the victims of the scheme. He tried selling a home to a family who was financing with Infinite Properties.

“It took a while and some people suffered, and are still probably suffering with the financial loss. But I’m pretty sure this is gonna ease it somewhat that they caught these people. And I don’t know if that money is going to be recovered, but I mean I doubt it, but at least they are, they’re taken off the streets, they were really deceitful,” he said.

If convicted, the men all face up to 30 years in federal prison and a possible $1 million fine. 

CHANNEL 5 NEWS reached out to the U.S. Attorney’s Office Southern District of Texas. We asked if there’s any possibility of people who lost money to the company would get it back. They said they were unable to answer the question at this time due to the limited information available in the public record.