NEW YORK (AP) — The owner of a New York City company that boasted it could save people from foreclosure only to rip them off has been sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Maurice McDowall, of Brooklyn, was sentenced in Manhattan federal court last week for his guilty plea to federal conspiracy charges. He also will have to forfeit $2.5 million.

McDowall’s partner, Aleksander Lipkin, also pled guilty to fraud charges and agreed to forfeit $7 million. He will be sentenced Friday.

The pair scammed homeowners located primarily in Brooklyn and the Bronx, between November 2003 and April 2005. McDowall was arrested in Puerto Rico on December 1, 2007. Lipkin and other defendants were arrested a few days later.

McDowall and Lipkin’s scam was operated through various dummy organizations, such as Lost and Found Recovery.

The company was accused of getting troubled homeowners to temporarily sign away their homes to someone else to save them from foreclosure. The company let the loans default, causing people to lose their homes while the company pocketed $1.4 million in fees.

It’s an example of a scheme used by some of the most unscrupulous players in the country’s sub-prime mortgage crisis.

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