CBS 5 Investigates With Anna Werner

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS 5) ― He promised to save Californians' homes from foreclosure. But some customers said all his company did was take their money and do nothing in return.

CBS 5 Investigates has been tracking that firm and the man running it throughout 2009, as the complaints kept rolling in. But as the year wraps up, the man behind it all may finally have reached the end of his real estate road.

He's the man who told CBS 5 Investigates "You're done! You're done!" But now, it seems like Ray Jeter is the one who's done, at least with his loan modification business, and his company's promise to save California homeowners facing foreclosure.

Why? Because Jeter has just turned in his real estate license. "The department has agreed to accept as a voluntary surrender Mr. Jeter's real estate broker's license," said Tom Pool with the California Department of Real Estate.

A voluntary license surrender, after the DRE threatened to take it away, for activities the state said were illegal. "One of the big things was that he was collecting advance fees without prior approval from the department," Pool said.

Pool said taking money upfront is a violation of California's real estate law. And a year-long CBS 5 investigation uncovered many former customers who say Jeter and his companies, Saving California which is also known as Whitfield Financial, duped them into paying thousands of dollars upfront, then did nothing.

Customers such as Marta Mendez, who told CBS 5, "He is lying! He is stealing the money from people like us."

But Jeter's license surrender doesn't mean his customers' problems are over: Meet Leslie Locsin.

"I was hoping they could reduce the principal amount on my house, and lower my payments," said Locsin.

He says he gave Whitfield Financial an initial deposit of $500 in April of this year, to help him lower his monthly mortgage payments. He says he faxed over all his financial documents. "I was waiting and waiting and nothing ever happened," Locsin said.

And two months later when Locsin called his bank to see how things were going?

"They told me that they had not been contacted. I was really angry. My blood started to boil," he said.

Locsin especially was angry when he received a new bill, with pages and pages of itemized expenses for things such as faxing documents for 24 minutes. The rate was $75 an hour. And "auditing file for completion" for 8 minutes at a rate of $275 an hour. "Just going through here is thousands and thousands of dollars. All eight invoices amount up to $17,000. It's just outrageous!" Locsin said.

But Locsin said the final straw was when he tried to get his money back, and couldn't. Because it turns out his and a lot of other customers' deposits are now held up in court.

Why? A court filing from the escrow company that had been holding those customers' deposits said Jeter's Whitfield financial had been trying to access the money, supposedly "to collect fees...as a result of services performed."

While a different company involved said the money should rightfully be going back to the customers. So now, more than $100,000 in customer deposits sits at the Santa Clara County Superior Court, waiting for a judge to decide who gets it.

And it's not clear those customers will ever see their cash again. "It's been our experience that when trust funds disappear and are not refunded the chances of getting that money back are pretty slim," said the Department of Real Estate's Tom Pool.

So what does Ray Jeter have to say? On several occasions over the past year, he's been more than willing to tell CBS 5 Investigates his side of the story: But this time when we tried to contact Jeter: No response.

Leaving former customers like Marta Mendez just as frustrated as before. "What's going to happen? Probably nothing. Probably he's going to get away with I'm pretty sure he lives better than we are and with our money, our work," Mendez said.

Jeter has to surrender his license by December 21st. He will no longer be able to do loan modifications or work as a realtor.

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