Unique Mortgage Solutions (UMS, LLC) - Retail/Wholesale, Agency/Conf.

Update - 2008-06-12: An ex-employee contacted us today with this message: "The BK has been dismissed as of May." The Dismissal occurred on 2008-05-13. They continue:

"The trustee could not get in touch with Alex Ramirez and he never showed for court. The Dept of Labor can no longer help us out recoup our $ since the company is closed. Many of us are teaming together to file a class action lawsuit against the company."

Public records available via PACER do not specifically mention Ramirez' failure to appear. Another former employee sent this in an email:

"I was one of the original employees of the company. The company never made money and the CEO kept borrowing money or convincing investors that it was a strong company and took their money as investments. He even send a few Korean LO's to Korea to try and find people to invest in the company.

He was bouncing many pay checks over the last six months and canceled insurance without telling anyone. The sad part is he was collecting the co pays of the employees and not paying the insurance company."

Update - 2008-03-25: A Chapter 11 Bankruptcy petition was filed 2008-03-24 in New Jersey District court by Unique Loans LLC (dba Unique Mortgage). CEO Alexander Ramirez signed as authorized agent. While the name isn't exactly the same, there can be no doubt this is one and the same company.

Among the list of "Unsecured Non-Priority Claims" are a good number of employees owed amounts ranging into thousands of dollars. We have posted a copy of the BK and Deadline to File Proof of Claim (.pdf - 39 pages).

Original Post - 2008-02-29: We heard over the weekend that Unique Mortgage Solutions (a dba for UMS, LLC) out of Paramus, NJ closed on Friday. According to one tipster, the "AE's were called around 4pm and told the news."

The wholesale web site is down, and there is no archival information available for their site. One source told us they were doing about $12 million in monthly volume with a peak "last November" of about $20 million and "150 activate brokers with files pending on the last list I saw" according to one AE. Aside from the home office in NJ, they also had locations in Tallahassee, FL and Easton, PA. We're told they were licensed in 12 states, including CO, DE, NH, and NM, but the list on their web site indicates 11 including NV and WY, with 16 others as "PENDING". No telephone numbers as listed on their web site were working when we tried to call. They are currently shown on FHA's List of Approved Lenders.

It is reported that about 50 employees were affected. The company had been experiencing problems of late, according to tips we received:

"Ins was cancelled and not told to employees that Ins was actually cancelled 12/15. (We found out by letter from Ins company in first week of Feb)"

And this:

"AEs haven't been paid since November 2007"

We also found this tidbit posted 2008-01-03 on jobster.com in response to the question "What do you miss most about Unique Mortgage Solutions?":

"I really loved my fellow employees, there was definitely a team atmosphere and everyone is willing to help each other. I think this company has a great batch of employees but that the bankruptcy is inevitable."

No info on a bankruptcy filing was available on public record as of the date of this writing. We were also unable to verify one tipster's claim that Labor Boards had been contacted and "they're being investigated in FL, Pa and now CT."

Please contact us if you can provide more detail on this company.