Foreclosurepedia described the method in 2014. A former Assero employee described a version of it in 2023. HUD has now been handed the allegation again.
A longtime HUD vendor in Pennsylvania wrote Foreclosurepedia with a claim that should stop a federal contracting officer cold. 24 Asset Management, the vendor says, has been taking Labor’s old photos, changing the dates, and submitting them to HUD as new work.
The vendor says he holds proof. Foreclosurepedia has not seen it. We are reporting the claim as told, and we are reporting what sits behind it.
A Photo Is How You Get Paid
Photographs are how a contractor proves the work was done and how a prime justifies what it bills HUD. Change the date on the photo and the claim becomes something it never was.
The same vendor says the amounts 24 Asset Management reports on 1099s differ from what it actually paid. Foreclosurepedia does not yet know which direction the gap runs. We will say so when we do.
The Playbook Has A Name
In 2014, Foreclosurepedia described a technique the industry calls Screen Shotting, Desk Topping, or Mirroring. You crop the date and time stamp off a photo and enter your own. A careful operator rewrites the EXIF data to match. Most do not bother.
That reporting centered on Asset Management Specialists, where our sources placed Lee Mertins at the top of the operation. We laid out how we believed it worked. Load a stack of old photos, tell temporary staff there was a system glitch, and have them re-upload. Craig Karnes, the the HUD M&M Director was advised via email.
We also described HUD’s P260 system, where only the person issued a C Number may use its credentials. We wrote that the IP logs show one person working multiple terminals, in multiple cities, at the same time.
Mertins now appears beside Eduardo “Fast Eddie” San Roman on West Virginia’s Secretary of State record as a manager of Assero Services, LLC. Foreclosurepedia has reported that Assero is the field services brand that grew out of 24 Asset Management. The record is a state filing, not a rumor.
Fannie Mae Was Told In 2023
A former Assero employee wrote Foreclosurepedia in 2023 describing the same method aimed at Fannie Mae. The employee said Assero filed EFRs, requests to bill Fannie Mae for debris overages. Assero then paid the vendor for the smaller quantity that actually went out. The employee also said some EFRs used photos from other trash-outs.
The weak point, the employee said, is the PDF. Fannie Mae requires the EFR package as a PDF, and the conversion strips the photo detail needed to check it. Foreclosurepedia wrote in 2014 that Fannie Mae’s servers sit outside FOIA. HUD’s do not.
The employee said the report went to Fannie Mae’s fraud unit. Foreclosurepedia is not identifying the employee.
Iowa: The Properties HUD Owns Are Failing
A property preservation contractor in Iowa who works for 24 Asset Management wrote that he is owed between $25,000 and $30,000. Some of his unpaid work orders are two years old. Orders he completed in 2026 are running 130 days late by his count.
He describes properties left to fail. One has had water in the basement since March and ceilings caving in, and 24 Asset Management told him it was waiting on HUD to approve bids. Another has large cracks in the ceiling and walls and mold starting to form. A third has a basement full of mold. He says nothing has been done on any of them.
Most recently he found four inches of water or more over a dead sump pump in a house already listed for sale. When he asked about the mold, he says 24 Asset Management told him HUD’s point of contact said HUD is doing nothing about mold anymore. Foreclosurepedia has not confirmed that with HUD.
He keeps almost every check stub, the envelopes, and every email. Four dates attach to each check: the date printed, the date metered, the postmark, and the day it arrived. He says they run up to ten weeks apart. A check dated in June is not a payment in June.
What Labor Is Owed Now
Three new sets of records on paper document $117,644.50. Puerto Rico audits show $42,900.00. An Illinois invoice sheet shows $29,286.50. One vendor’s formal claim covers 1,023 HUD invoices, 703 in Texas, 311 in New Mexico, and nine in Puerto Rico, and totals $45,458.00 for work done in 2024.
Vendors report $209,000 to $214,000 more without paper. That is about $100,000 across two Pennsylvania vendors, $38,000 for a contractor covering four counties in Central Florida, and $25,000 to $30,000 in Iowa. It also includes $33,000 on a single asset unpaid since April and $13,000 outstanding since March.
The total is $326,644.50 to $331,644.50. It is a sum of separate claims, not an audited figure, and Foreclosurepedia has counted each claim once. The Pennsylvania vendor says a group chat of about eight vendors is comparing balances. More is coming.
HUD Cannot Say It Didn’t Know
Foreclosurepedia put the photo allegation in writing in front of Sharon Washington, LaShura Ford, and Craig Karnes, with the passage highlighted. We told them it is the same issue we raised years ago on the AMS contract.
HUD has already written that it “is aware of the relationship between 24 Asset Management and Assero.” Foreclosurepedia will update this piece if HUD answers. Don’t hold your breath, though. It is the mid-terms and I am sure they all hope this will simply go way.
What This Is, And What It Isn’t
Foreclosurepedia has not seen the re-dated photos. We have a vendor’s statement that proof exists, a 2014 account of the method, and a 2023 insider account aimed at Fannie Mae.
If photos were re-dated to support payment, the False Claims Act asks whether a false record was material to a claim for federal money. That is a question for HUD’s Office of Inspector General. A photo that proves old work does not prove new work, and the EXIF data will say which.
What Labor Does Now
Keep your original photo files. Do not crop, resize, convert, or re-save them. The original EXIF data is your alibi, so back it up today.
Keep every check stub, envelope, postmark, and email. File a FOIA for the identity of the bond holder. A bond claim needs a judgment or a suit against the underwriter, so build that file now and talk to counsel before you file. If nothing else, file a pro se complaint.
As the work moves to Alpine and others, get the rate and the payment window in writing before you accept a single order.
Say these names. Eduardo San Roman. Lee Mertins. Both appear on the West Virginia record for Assero.
The contract is going. The photos are not. The invoices are not. The names are the same.
If 24 Asset Management owes you, send your records to [email protected].
