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Alpine Companies Awarded $51,568,665. Three Contracts. Will Labor Stay To Work Them?

By
Editor In Chief
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HUD signed the contracts. It did not sign the workforce. Field Service Technicians and Inspectors decide whether this work gets done, and the math gives them every reason to walk. As opposed to the past, Alpine Companies is the underdog in the onboarding process. They face an enormous uphill battle due to the hundreds of thousands of dollars owed to Labor on the contracts they are attempting to roll out. In addition to our reporting on 24 Asset Management, this just came in today,

It’s great to see your posts about 24 asset.  I’ve been doing the HUD FSM contract over 15 years.  Your estimates of only owing around 100k very low.  We have a Facebook group chat of about 8 vendors puts. Just between myself and one other vendor we are over $100k.

 

If you need any other information let me know. I filed  for the FOIA and am waiting on a response for who holds the bond.

 

In addition the amounts he 1099 people are not the amounts that were actually paid . We also have proof that 24 Assett [sic] has been using our old photos and changing the dates to submit to HUD.

HUD has handed $51,568,665.00 of Field Service Management work to Alpine Companies Inc. of Alpine, Utah. April Cooper signed all three awards as CEO on September 30, 2026. HUD’s Contracting Officers, Ryne W. Joyner and Charles W. Hoyle, countersigned between 8:38 p.m. and 9:24 p.m. Eastern. That was the last night of the federal fiscal year.

Two Vehicles Replaced. One Added.

24 Asset Management ran six HUD Field Service Management vehicles. Alpine’s awards replace it on two of them. The third award, 4S/6S, replaces a vehicle held by Spectrum Solutions Acquisitions.

Award Area States and territories Amount
86614526D00001 3A/4A Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky $17,248,185.00
86614526D00002 5A/8A North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands $26,512,520.00
86614526D00008 4S/6S Idaho, Nevada, Alaska, Oregon, Washington $7,807,960.00

HUD posted all three on SAM.gov as Original Award Notices on September 30, 2026, under notice IDs FSM_312_3A4A, FSM_312_5A8A, and FSM_312_4S6S.

Count them. 11 states, plus Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The four 24 Asset Management vehicles not in these awards are 1D, 4D/5D, 5P, and 3S/5S.

Look at 5A/8A. 24 Asset Management’s contract carried a $68,001,505 ceiling. HUD ordered through it in three annual task orders: $8,736,007, $11,450,600, and $10,124,600. That totals $30,311,207, or 45 cents of every dollar of the ceiling. Alpine’s new award is $26,512,520.00.

All six 24 Asset Management vehicles were awarded on November 2, 2023. All six stop taking new orders on November 1, 2026.

HUD Set Its Price. Labor Has Not Seen Its Own.

Each award runs 115 to 119 pages. The signature pages show who gets paid and when. They show nothing about what Alpine pays the people who do the work. That number is private, and it is the whole fight.

One term stands out. The 3A/4A award carries a 3/10 net 30 prompt payment term. That is a 3 percent discount if HUD pays within 10 days. On $17,248,185.00, that is up to $517,445.55. Someone absorbs it. Labor has watched this story before.

The Storefront Is Empty

Look at what $51,568,665.00 bought. Alpine’s website, alpinecompaniesinc.com, offers two links: Home and Contact. One headline lists asset management, property preservation, valuations, and real estate disposition. Below it sit blank boxes where the services should be.

The browser flags the site as not secure. The page loads without encryption. The site has not been updated since 2022.

A website is not a work order platform. It is the only part of Alpine anyone outside the contract can see. HUD just placed work across 11 states and two territories with a contractor whose public face is a placeholder. That should raise questions at HUD.

It should raise them with Labor too. A Field Service Technician or Inspector looking for Alpine finds no linked vendor page, no onboarding steps, and no pay terms. Just a Contact link. Labor deserves to know where to sign up, whom to call, and when pay arrives. A vendor who cannot find those answers will not stay.

Alpine website

The Truck Does Not Care Who Won The Contract

On September 14, diesel hit $6.285 a gallon. That was the first reading above $6 since the EIA series began in 1994. The old record was $5.81, set in June 2022. Diesel was up 68 percent from a year earlier. Regular gasoline stood at $4.319, up $1.151 a gallon, or 36 percent.

It kept climbing. By September 21, diesel reached $6.529 and gasoline reached $4.478.

Run the arithmetic at the September 14 gap. A Field Service Technician who burns 15 gallons of gasoline a day pays $17.27 more per day than a year ago. Over 22 working days, that is about $380 a month. It comes before a single lawn is cut.

Insurance does not stand still either. Construction contractors pay an average of $264 a month for commercial auto insurance, about $3,173 a year. An independent contractor is typically not covered under a client’s policy. One industry guide reports that even clean fleets are seeing rate increases of 7 to 15 percent in 2026.

Tariffs on steel, aluminum, lumber, and auto parts raise the cost of every repair and every replacement. Consumer prices rose 3.4 percent in July from a year earlier. Every cost line moves in one direction. The rate Labor is offered has not kept pace.

Who Gets The Rest?

Alpine holds three awards. They are numbered 00001, 00002, and 00008, and all three cite the same HUD solicitation, 86614526R00001. HUD’s last generation of Field Service Management contracts had eleven vehicles, all awarded on November 2, 2023.

Eight of them run out on November 1, 2026: six held by 24 Asset Management and two by Spectrum Solutions Acquisitions. Alpine replaces three of the eight. That leaves five open: 24 Asset Management’s 1D, 4D/5D, 5P, and 3S/5S, and Spectrum’s 2D.

The other three vehicles belong to JGM Property Group: 3P, 1P/4P, and 6A/7A. Those contracts run to November 1, 2027. They are not in play yet.

Foreclosurepedia has not seen who gets the five open areas. Whoever does walks into the same math: fuel, insurance, tariffs, and a workforce deciding whether to stay.

The Industry Has Been Sued Over This Before

In 2018, the California Supreme Court decided Dynamex Operations West v. Superior Court. The ruling presumes a worker is an employee unless the hirer proves three things: freedom from control, work outside the hirer’s usual business, and an independently established trade. Governor Newsom signed AB 5 on September 19, 2019, and codified the test.

Mortgage field services has been in this fight for over a decade.

Brad Hurst lived and worked in Northern California. In 2007, he answered a Craigslist ad for landscape work and signed an independent contractor agreement with Buczek Enterprises, a property preservation company based in New York. In November 2010, he sued in California Superior Court and alleged misclassification. Buczek removed the case to federal court in San Francisco. Buczek paid him only if and when its client paid it.

A New York company. California work. In Hurst v. Buczek, Judge Edward Chen ruled in 2012 that Buczek was doing business in California. The court dismissed Buczek’s counterclaims against Hurst because the company had not qualified to do business in the state.

Vinson was a California vendor. His case against Asset Management Specialists and Mortgage Contracting Services, two national companies, sits in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, No. 5:14-cv-00369. Mortgage Contracting Services went on to buy Asset Management Specialists. The claim: misclassification as independent contractors. Potential liability was put at about $160 million. After AMS opposed class certification, Vinson settled individually and dropped the class allegations.

Both plaintiffs worked in California. Both took on companies with national reach.

Field Asset Services faced the same theory in Bowerman. In July 2022, the Ninth Circuit reversed class certification for 156 property preservation vendors. The panel also voided the workers’ win and scrapped a $5.1 million attorney fee award.

Companies won rounds. They won on procedure. The court held that individual questions predominated, so the vendors could not proceed as one class. A class is the cheapest way to sue. Without one, every Field Service Technician and Inspector fights alone.

Alpine’s Map Is Not California. The Theory Travels.

None of Alpine’s three areas include California. Dynamex binds California work and nothing else. But the idea behind it is not a California idea.

Five of Alpine’s 11 states apply an ABC-style test to unemployment insurance: Illinois, Indiana, Nevada, Alaska, and Washington. Those tests decide who owes unemployment taxes and who collects benefits. The other five, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, and Idaho, lean on the older right-to-control standard.

That is the difference between a Field Service Technician who can claim benefits when the work dries up and one who cannot.

The Old Debt Is Still Open

Foreclosurepedia reported this week on one vendor’s claim against 24 Asset Management. 1,023 invoices. $45,458.00. The claim does not say who decided that Labor would wait.

West Virginia state records list Eduardo San Roman, known as “Fast Eddie,” as a Manager of Assero Services. Assero is the field services brand that grew out of 24 Asset Management. New letterhead. Same invoice.

So Will Labor Stay?

Look at what the model asks. HUD pays Alpine. Alpine pays Labor. The gap between those two numbers is the margin. Fuel, insurance, tariffs, and inflation squeeze that gap from the Labor side only.

A company that needs Labor at pennies on the dollar will find Labor has already done the arithmetic. Field Service Technicians and Inspectors will stay for a rate that covers the truck. They will not stay for a promise.

A company whose public face stopped in 2022 now asks Labor to trust it with 2026 invoices.

What Labor Does Now

Do not send a W-9, an insurance certificate, or bank details through any site your browser calls unsafe. Ask how Alpine collects them first.

Do the math before you accept the first order. Fuel. Insurance. Dump fees. Then the rate. If the rate does not clear the costs, you are paying to work.

Get the pay rate and the payment window in writing. No handshake deals. Not Alpine’s, not anyone’s. Ask whether pay depends on the client paying first. Additionally, demand to know information about Alpine’s performance bond including all contact details for the underwriter and request its verification.

Keep every invoice, photo, and message from the old work. If 24 Asset Management owes you, file your claim now. A contract ending does not end your rights.

If you work in a state that uses an ABC-style test, get legal advice before you sign a contractor agreement.

The contracts are signed. The invoices stayed. Whether Labor stays is the only question left.

Alpine Awards

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Fast Eddie’s 24 Asset Management Was Never A Contractor In Trouble. It Was A Business Model, And HUD Paid For It.

By
Editor In Chief
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Lisday24AM Garnishment

The Contract Is Gone. The Method Is Not.

24 Asset Management is losing the HUD Management and Marketing Field Service Manager 3.12 awards. Six awards across ten geographic areas, first-year value reported at roughly $51 million. Taxpayer money, handed to a company with a long record of not paying the people who did the work.

This is an opinion piece, so here is the opinion. HUD did not stumble into this. It was warned for years, in writing, and it kept the awards anyway.

When You Take Federal Money, Your Record Belongs To The Public

A private contractor who stiffs a customer has a private dispute. A federal awardee who stiffs Field Service Technicians and Inspectors on federal work has made it everyone’s business.

HUD owes the public a contractor with adequate financial resources and a satisfactory record of integrity and business ethics. That is the responsibility standard in FAR 9.104-1. Ask yourself whether this record meets it.

The Paper

Foreclosurepedia has stopped asking Labor to take our word for it. We now hold the invoices.

One vendor’s formal claim covers 1,023 HUD invoices across Texas, New Mexico, and Puerto Rico. It totals $45,458.00. A total of 113 invoices were never paid, and 910 were paid short. The vendor billed $89,198.00 on the short-paid invoices and received $61,707.50. That is 69.2 percent.

The pattern is blunt. Of the short-paid invoices, 569 were billed at $65. A total of 267 were paid $35. Nobody has told those Inspectors why the rate changed.

Add the Puerto Rico and Illinois ledgers we published earlier, and documented unpaid work reaches $117,644.50. That is before the roughly $33,000 vendors report outstanding since April, before a new $15,500 claim that arrived this morning, and before one dollar of Assero.

The Claims Keep Arriving

On October 3, a North Carolina vendor wrote to Foreclosurepedia. The vendor says 24 Asset Management owes $15,500 and has promised a check for more than two weeks. Texts from the company’s contact say the check is on the way. It never arrived.

The vendor says that contact answered promptly until October 2 and has not responded since. Its work covers nine North Carolina properties, eleven counting open work orders. About $30,000 in work orders sit unfinished until the check clears. That is exactly what Foreclosurepedia has told Labor to do.

The vendor says it is sending written notices of claim to San Roman and to its HUD contacts. That is one more notice aimed at HUD. Foreclosurepedia treats the $15,500 as sourced, not documented, until the invoices and texts arrive.

The Pattern Is Older Than The Contract

Assero Services collapsed owing Labor close to a million dollars and never filed bankruptcy. It simply stopped. A West Virginia Secretary of State record lists Eduardo San Roman and Lee Mertins as its managers.

LoanCare, LLC sued Assero, 24 Asset Management, and San Roman personally in Virginia Beach, case CL25-6432. One caption. Three defendants. A source tells Foreclosurepedia that San Roman, not Mertins, was the money behind Assero.

Then there is Stewart Valuation Intelligence, LLC. It sued 24 Asset Management over invoices dated June 2021 through August 2022. A clerk’s default was entered on September 26, 2024. A final judgment of $26,261.90 followed.

On June 3, 2025, the parties filed a joint stipulation to vacate the default and the judgment under a confidential settlement. We do not know what Stewart received or when. We do know it took a default and a judgment to get there.

Court papers in three separate Miami-Dade cases direct service on the company to Eddie San Roman at 13155 SW 42nd Street, Suite 200. One writ calls him the registered agent in so many words. The same suite has appeared in our Assero reporting for years.

HUD Knew. In Writing.

As early as January 2023, Foreclosurepedia put this in front of HUD procurement officials, repeatedly and in writing. HUD answered. Craig Karnes wrote that HUD “is aware of the relationship between 24 Asset Management and Assero.”

He added that any continuing award would require the company to “mitigate any identified Conflicts of Interest.” The awards continued. So did the non-payment.

We sent HUD a $21,000 Assero check that was stopped after the contractor deposited it. We sent HUD an Illinois vendor owed about $30,000 whose HUD assets sat unserviced because Labor had stopped working for free. Karnes, Sharon Washington, and LaShura Ford never once replied to the plight of Labor.

Foreclosurepedia knows of no award pulled, no payment review opened, and no warning to the vendors still working HUD properties. In our view, a federal agency that holds years of written notice and says nothing has made a choice.

Whether that choice was lawful is a question for the HUD Office of Inspector General and Congress. If invoices were certified as paid to subcontractors who were not paid, it is also a False Claims Act question. HUD should answer on the record.

The Questions HUD Still Has Not Answered

The HUD M&M FSM awards were 24 Asset Management’s flagship business. Foreclosurepedia expects its W-2 staff touched HUD data, and anyone who did needed a C number.

In 2026 alone, creditors obtained two writs of garnishment against the company as an employer, and a third was served in 2021. We are not naming those employees. They are private people, and their paychecks are not the story. The employer is.

HUD should say what it requires its Field Service Manager to vet and report about its own staff. It should say what it actually received, and why a company with a court default and a string of writs kept the awards.

Say These Names

A vendor’s formal claim lists the people it says it contacted about the unpaid balances: Breanna Byars, Jaime Mackle, Virginia Lorenzo, and Eddie San Roman. These are the names the vendor identified. The claim does not say who decided Labor would wait.

Our earlier reporting also named Lee Mertins, Jim Hillsman, and Greg Seale, along with San Roman’s son Zach. Say those names. Repeat those names. Write them down before the recruiting emails start.

This LinkedIn page will give you a fairly accurate list of who has worked there. A LinkedIn listing shows where someone worked. It does not show who decided Labor would wait.

Avoid Them Like The Plague

New Awardees are ramping up. They will need Field Service Technicians and Inspectors fast, and they will want people who already know the territory and the HUD portals. Foreclosurepedia expects some of those people to come from 24 Asset Management, with their C numbers intact.

Do not take the work. Anyone who dispatched you under 24 Asset Management or Assero and then stopped paying you has earned your suspicion. A firm that puts these names back in front of Labor has told you how it values your invoices. That is our position, and we stand behind it.

Ask in writing who your point of contact is and who handles payment. Get payment terms in writing before you do one inspection. If you see a name from this article, walk away and tell us.

What Labor Does Now

Build the claim. List every work order, the service, the date, the amount invoiced, and the amount paid. Keep every email and text where you asked to be paid.

File with HUD in writing and with HUD OIG. Ask a qui tam attorney whether your records support a False Claims Act filing.

Do not count on a lien. It can be filed, but the other side can post a bond to release it, and it rarely gets Labor paid.

Most important, file your lawsuit now. Small claims or regular court, with a lawyer or pro se. Foreclosurepedia understands that HUD looks at judgments when it applies the performance bond. A judgment is what puts your claim in front of HUD.

If you have not filed, you are not in line for anything. If 24 Asset Management owes you, send your records to [email protected].

The Playbook Has Not Changed

Take the federal award. Pay part. Stall the rest. Ignore the calls. Wait until Labor gives up or the contract is gone.

Then change the letterhead and call the next recruiter. The contract is gone. The invoices are not. The names are the same.

Lisday24AM Garnishment

 

 

Fast Eddie’s Own Vendors Are Now Naming Names – $45,458 In The Latest Fraud Report At 24 Asset Management

By
Editor In Chief
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2026 10 03 11 32 18 RANO LLC 24Asset Formal Payment Claim Package UPDATED.pdf Adobe Acrobat Reader

The Contract Is Gone. The People Are Not.

24 Asset Management is losing the HUD Management and Marketing Field Service Manager 3.12 awards. The people who ran its accounts are not leaving the industry. Foreclosurepedia expects them to land at the new Awardees.

We have watched this move before. Assero collapsed owing Labor close to a million dollars, and the same operation kept going under a new name. The staff keep their HUD C numbers and their credentials. A new letterhead does not erase an old invoice.

One Vendor. 1,023 Invoices. $45,458.00. Two new states including New Mexico and Texas.

A vendor has put a formal claim in writing against 24 Asset Management. It totals $45,458.00 for HUD property preservation and inspection work in Texas, New Mexico, and Puerto Rico.

The package has two reports. The Non-Payment Report lists 113 invoices with nothing paid, totaling $17,967.50. The Partial Payment Report lists 910 invoices paid short, totaling $27,490.50.

Foreclosurepedia ran every line. The invoice counts and both totals tie to the penny. Texas accounts for 703 invoices, New Mexico for 311, and Puerto Rico for nine. The work dates run from February 27, 2024 through September 13, 2024.

That is more than two years of waiting on money for work that was finished.

Say These Names

The vendor says it tried to settle this in writing and by phone. The claim lists exactly who it contacted: Breanna Byars, Jaime Mackle, Virginia Lorenzo, and Eddie San Roman. These are the names the vendor identified.

The vendor says it never received a formal response from 24 Asset Management’s legal or management representatives. No resolution. No explanation. No check.

Foreclosurepedia is reporting what the claim says. These are the people the vendor says it asked to pay. The claim does not say who decided Labor would wait. That question belongs to them, and our door is open.

Eddie San Roman is the principal. He is named personally in the LoanCare lawsuit beside Assero and 24 Asset Management. A West Virginia Secretary of State record lists him as a manager of Assero.

Our earlier reporting also named Lee Mertins, Jim Hillsman, and Greg Seale, along with San Roman’s son Zach. Say those names. Repeat those names. Write them down before the recruiting emails start.

This LinkedIn page will give you a fairly accurate list of who has worked there. A LinkedIn listing shows where someone worked. It does not show who decided Labor would wait.

Paid Short, Page After Page

The Partial Payment Report shows $89,198.00 invoiced and $61,707.50 paid. The vendor received 69.2 percent of what it billed.

The pattern is hard to miss. Of the 910 shorted invoices, 569 were billed at $65. A total of 267 of them were paid $35. Another 155 were paid $45, and 122 were paid $40. Thirteen were paid $15.

A $65 inspection paid at $35 is a 46 percent cut. The unpaid balance on those 569 invoices alone is $14,960.00.

Routine inspections make up 841 of the 910 shorted invoices. They account for $21,489.00 of the $27,490.50 owed. That is 78 percent of the partial payment debt sitting on the cheapest, most repeated work in the industry.

Those are Inspectors who drove to the property, took the photos, and uploaded the report. Nobody has told them why the rate changed. The vendor has asked in writing.

Where The Big Money Sits

Two work orders in Abernathy, Texas make up more than a quarter of the claim. A HUD initial services invoice for $9,885.00 shows no payment at all.

A second Abernathy invoice for $9,585.00 was paid $7,110.00. That leaves $2,475.00 unpaid. Together the two orders are $12,360.00, or 27.2 percent of the whole claim.

The Non-Payment Report also lists a $900.00 approved bid pass-through in Eunice, New Mexico, with nothing paid. Labor carried the cost, did the work, and got nothing back.

The Number Moves Again

Foreclosurepedia’s last accounting documented $72,186.50 in unpaid work. That was a Puerto Rico audit at $42,900 and an Illinois ledger at $29,286.50.

Add this claim and the documented total is now $117,644.50.

That figure does not include the roughly $33,000 vendors report outstanding since April. It does not include the smaller balances from other firms. It does not include one dollar of the Assero debt.

We said sources put the total above $100,000 and climbing. The paper now agrees.

HUD Was Told. Again.

This claim is for HUD work. Craig Karnes was told about this pattern for years, in writing. More recently, Sharon Washington, and LaShura Ford, both HUD employees were brought into the loop via emails directly with the victims. Karnes even wrote that HUD was aware of the relationship between 24 Asset Management and Assero.

The awards continued anyway. Now there is another invoice-level record of what that decision cost the people who did the work.

Sources report that HUD is assessing liquidated damages against 24 Asset Management. Foreclosurepedia has not seen the amounts. Every dollar HUD recovers is a dollar that does not reach Labor.

They Will Be Back. Avoid Them Like The Plague.

Here is the hard part. When the new Awardees ramp up, they will need Field Service Technicians and Inspectors fast. They will also need people who already know the territory, the systems, and the HUD portals.

Some of those people will come from 24 Asset Management. They will have their HUD C numbers and their credentials. They will have friendly emails and promises of fast pay.

Do not take the work. Foreclosurepedia’s position is simple. Anyone who dispatched you under 24 Asset Management or Assero and then stopped paying you has earned your suspicion. Treat them like the plague.

The same goes for any firm that hires them. A firm that puts these names back in front of Labor has told you how it values your invoices. That is an editorial position, and we stand behind it.

Before you accept a single work order from a new Awardee, ask in writing who your point of contact is. Ask who handles payment. If you see a name from this article, walk away and tell us. If you find that they were former 24 Asset Management employees, refuse the work.

Get payment terms in writing before you perform any work. Do not float a week of inspections on a handshake. Do not give up your W-9 and your credentials until you know exactly who you are working for.

We kept a list of every name Labor sent us. If you want to know whether someone has a history, ask.

HUD Cannot Say It Didn’t Know

HUD was told in writing as early as January 2023, and it answered in writing. Craig Karnes wrote that HUD “is aware of the relationship between 24 Asset Management and Assero.” Foreclosurepedia then sent HUD a stopped $21,000 check, a National Field Network in the making warning, and an Illinois vendor owed about $30,000 whose HUD assets sat unserviced. Karnes, Sharon Washington, and LaShura Ford never once answered the plight of Labor. Nobody in that chain pulled an award, opened a payment review, or told the vendors who were still working HUD properties for free. HUD took the inspections, took the photos, and kept dispatching. A federal agency that holds years of written notice, keeps the awardee, and says nothing to the people carrying the cost has made a choice. Whether that choice was lawful is a question for the HUD Office of Inspector General and for Congress. If invoices were certified as paid to subcontractors who were not paid, it is also a False Claims Act question. HUD should answer it on the record.

What Labor Should Do Right Now

Our advice has not changed. Build the claim. List every work order, the service, the date, the amount invoiced, and the amount paid. Keep every email and text where you asked to be paid.

File with HUD in writing and with HUD OIG. Preserve lien rights property by property. Ask a qui tam attorney whether your records support a False Claims Act filing.

Most important, file your lawsuit now. Small claims or regular court, with a lawyer or pro se. If you have not filed, you are not in line for anything least of all potential access to 24 Asset Management’s performance bond which is in the millions of dollars.

If 24 Asset Management owes you, send your records to [email protected]. Every documented claim is one more entry in a record that Byars, Mackle, Lorenzo, and San Roman cannot answer with silence.

The Playbook Has Not Changed

Take the federal award. Pay part. Stall the rest. Ignore the calls. Wait until Labor gives up or the contract is gone.

Then change the letterhead and call the next recruiter. The contract is gone. The invoices are not. The names are the same.

Complaint Against 24 Asset Management With 24AM Staff Names

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Fast Eddie Loses The HUD M&M FSM. HUD Was Warned For Years. Labor Is Still Waiting To Be Paid.

By
Editor In Chief
-
Rosy IAFST

The Contract Is Gone. The Debt Is Not.

Eduardo “Fast Eddie” San Roman’s 24 Asset Management has lost its HUD Management and Marketing Field Service Manager 3.12 contract, according to sources with direct knowledge. The loss follows years of documented non-payment to Labor. It does not end the debt. We are also advised that Spectrum Solutions Acquisitions are gone, as well.

As an Editor’s Note today (02OCT26) one source claims that Spectrum Solutions Acquisitions is not impacted. Until the final notice is out on the wire, it is a toss up.

Foreclosurepedia warned in August that 24 Asset Management was on the precipice of losing its awards. That precipice is now behind us. The company held six awards across ten geographic areas, with first-year contract value reported at ~$51,045,736. The elephant in the room is the massive amount of liquidated damages allegedly being forced upon Fast Eddie by HUD.

We already know the new Awardees; however, we are waiting for their ramp up to begin before disclosing their names. One, though, reached out to us and had some great input that included far more rapid timelines and an increase in pay. So, that is a bonus.

The transition is happening now, and Labor is standing in the middle of it. New vendors report unpaid work as 24 Asset Management closes up shop. There is no bankruptcy filing, no creditor list, and no orderly process. That is the same exit Assero took. Listen here and listen well: If you have not filed a lawsuit and are not working on a judgement, you will not be able to claim a penny from the performance bond. Depending upon the amount owed, you may file in either small claims or your regular court (District, Superior, etc.). Get a lawyer, file pro se, it doesn’t matter because that is the only way you may be able to get paid.

HUD Knew. In Writing. For Years.

As early as January 2023, HUD was aware of the fraud. Foreclosurepedia did not find it quietly and sit on it. We put it in front of HUD procurement officials directly, repeatedly, and in writing.

HUD’s own reply is on the record. Craig Karnes, HUD’s Assistant Chief Procurement Officer for Field Operations, then wrote he was not at liberty to discuss the 3.12 corrective action. His title has changed since. Sharon Washington and LaShura Ford, both working in the HUD M&M FSM are well aware of the debts owed and would be on my first list for counsel to contact.

Then came the sentence that matters most. Karnes wrote that HUD “is aware of the relationship between 24 Asset Management and Assero.” He added that any continuing award would require 24 Asset Management to “mitigate any identified Conflicts of Interest.”

That is HUD acknowledging, in its own words, that a corrective action existed and that Assero and 24 Asset Management were linked. The awards continued anyway. The fraud continued anyway. And ultimately the US taxpayer is going to foot the bill.

The notices did not stop. Foreclosurepedia sent HUD a contractor’s account of a $21,000 check from Assero, covering six months of completed work after eight months without pay, that was stopped after the contractor deposited it and paid bills against it.

Foreclosurepedia then published the allegations and named Karnes. We warned him that Assero and 24 Asset Management carried “all the original hallmarks” of the National Field Network collapse, an involuntary bankruptcy now in its eighth year.

Foreclosurepedia also told HUD that the industry’s trade association, the International Association of Field Services (IAFST) had issued black list notices for HUD post-conveyance work once it was taken over by 24 Asset Management. They didn’t care; Karnes, Washington, and Ford never once replied to the plight of Labor.

More recently, a Field Service Technician and Inspector covering Central and South Illinois was owed about $30,000. Foreclosurepedia referred that vendor to Karnes, noting that HUD’s own assets were going unserviced because Labor had stopped working unpaid.

That vendor had stopped routine inspections, lawn maintenance, initial services, and winterizations. HUD stopped replying months ago. Silence did not end the awards. The contract ended only when it was lost.

As recent as several days ago, Foreclosurepedia moved yet another victim over to HUD. And they are victims. They performed the work, they carried the cost, and they are still waiting. From Puerto Rico to Illinois, the HUD M&M FSM 3.12 is probably the largest HUD backed fraud operation in recent memory. And those very same names of staff at 24 Asset Management and Spectrum Solutions Acquisitions may soon move to the new firms holding the Awards. Remember that. When you see those names that you begged to pay you, call them out when the recruitment begins. Hold their proverbial feet to the fire! And if you do not have their names feel free to reach out as we kept a list of them as they attempt to crawl back into the shadows only to reappear like a bad penny.

What Labor Is Actually Owed

Foreclosurepedia has tracked this debt case by case. The figures below come from separate ledgers and sources. They are not an audited total, and overlapping claims are not added twice.

Puerto Rico audits show 1,087 unpaid properties in 2025 and 1,058 in 2026, after removing cancelled orders and an invoice already counted elsewhere. At $20 per property, that is 2,145 properties and $42,900.

An Illinois invoice sheet lists 250 work orders across 27 HUD case numbers, performed over roughly three months. The job cost is $29,286.50. Of that, $23,536.50 is approved, $2,000 is completed, and $3,750 is pending approval.

Together those two ledgers document $72,186.50 in unpaid work. The Illinois vendor’s own aging puts more than $15,000 past due and $10,000 beyond 90 days, with the balance growing about $2,000 a week.

A Field Service Technician reported $38,674 outstanding in August, including $19,350 more than 45 days past due. That balance tracks the Puerto Rico debt, so it is not added. Counting one debt twice would only give 24 Asset Management something to dispute.

Other vendors report roughly $33,000 outstanding since April on a separate account, a balance of $3,000 or more from a logistics vendor, and further claims in the $13,000 to $21,000 range. Those are sourced, not documented, and Foreclosurepedia treats them that way.

The honest range runs from $72,186.50 documented to well over $100,000 once sourced claims are included. Foreclosurepedia will publish more only as the paper arrives. Sources put the current total above $100,000 and climbing.

The Pattern In Labor’s Own Words

The numbers are only half of it. The vendors describe the same sequence again and again. Net 45 terms stretch to 60, then 90. Checks arrive monthly, then late, then printed weeks before delivery. Questions go unanswered. Then the work orders stop being paid at all.

One Field Service Technician reported that payments fell into the 90-plus day window and that a check dated in June did not arrive until late July, 46 days after it was printed. The Technician said Fast Eddie and his son Zach knew.

A minority contractor reported that 24 Asset Management owed it for Hurricane Helene and Milton debris work in early 2025. The contractor made four written demands. A check was promised by FedEx and never arrived.

Late in 2025, vendors reported nonpayment across multiple states, including Illinois and Indiana. Foreclosurepedia has also reported that 24 Asset Management stopped paying Labor for months, and that staff knew the checks were not coming.

One contractor wrote to Foreclosurepedia that Assero’s unpaid work led to roughly $38,000 in liens. The contractor said Fannie Mae ignored the liens and was selling properties for cash with the liens still attached. Another vendor with about $40,000 in liens was offered half, then heard nothing.

The Better Business Bureau shows the same pattern under both names. 24 Asset Management’s own Miami profile is unaccredited and rated one star out of five. Every review on it is a one-star complaint, and the company has not responded to any of them.

One vendor reported months of completed work unpaid and said the company operates under multiple business names, some of them bankrupt, to avoid paying vendors. Another reported more than $5,000 owed since mid-August 2025 for trash-out inspections and a pool drain job, with no response to email or phone.

A third vendor completed three jobs and was paid for one, after three months on Net 30 terms. A fourth called the company the biggest scam in the industry and criticized how it treats its workers.

Both 24 Asset Management and Assero’s separate BBB profile carries five more vendor reviews from late 2023 and early 2024. They describe unpaid Fannie Mae work, including two claims of more than $15,000 each, and zero payment on eleven jobs at three West Virginia properties.

One reviewer reported spring inspections unpaid after ten years of reliable payment. Those reviews call 24 Asset Management the current name for the same operation.

Public comments on LinkedIn follow the same line. Vendors there describe balances unpaid since March, work completed and never paid, and promises that did not hold. Another vendor company reached out to Foreclosurepedia seeking to connect with other unpaid vendors and compare notes.

These are Field Service Technicians and Inspectors, small contractors, and family businesses. They bought the fuel, paid the crews, and carried the risk.

Liquidated Damages Put HUD At The Front Of The Line

Liquidated damages are the penalties a federal contract sets in advance when a contractor fails to perform. Sources report that HUD is now assessing enormous liquidated damages against 24 Asset Management. Foreclosurepedia has not seen the amounts and will not guess at them.

Here is the problem for Labor. A contractor that owes HUD a large sum and also owes Field Service Technicians and Inspectors for months of work has a creditor with leverage. The government is not waiting in line behind anyone.

If HUD withholds or offsets what it still owes 24 Asset Management, every dollar it recovers is a dollar that never reaches Labor. Labor deserves an answer to one question. Did anyone at HUD weigh the unpaid invoices of Field Service Technicians and Inspectors before collecting?

A company that owes HUD enormous damages, owes Labor six figures, and has filed no bankruptcy has every incentive to stop answering the phone. Labor has seen this before.

Assero Was Never Gone

Assero Services collapsed owing Labor close to a million dollars. It never filed bankruptcy. Fast Eddie San Roman kept the federal award under 24 Asset Management and kept dispatching work orders.

The public record shows how close the two companies were. A West Virginia Secretary of State record lists Eduardo San Roman and Lee Mertins as the managers of Assero Services, LLC, a Delaware company formed on October 31, 2014. And remember Eduardo San Roman, Lee Mertins, Jim Hillsman and Greg Seale. Say those names. Repeat those names. And never become involved with them for the rest of your career as Field Service Technicians and Inspectors.

Business-directory listings place Assero at the same Miami suite as 24 Asset Management, and its website was assero24.com. Foreclosurepedia reported in 2023 that Assero’s own LinkedIn page described the company as growing out of 24 Asset Management’s field services division.

Foreclosurepedia reported in 2022 that 24 Asset Management leaned on Assero’s past performance to win its first-year award. The same reporting counted hundreds of complaints about Assero refusing to pay, dating to December 2021.

The record points to one operation wearing two names. On this record, Assero looks like the field services arm of 24 Asset Management, abandoned while the parent kept the contract.

A source with direct knowledge tells Foreclosurepedia that Fast Eddie, not Lee Mertins, was the money behind Assero. The state record lists both men as managers. It does not say who funded the company, so Foreclosurepedia reports that detail as sourced, not documented.

HUD’s reasoning for keeping 24 Asset Management in the program was that San Roman may have controlled Assero without directing its finances. Foreclosurepedia answered that with a state filing naming him a manager of Assero. HUD’s own email then conceded the relationship.

LoanCare Put The Same Names In One Caption

LoanCare, LLC has sued Assero Services, LLC, 24 Asset Management Corporation, and Eddie San Roman personally for breach of contract. The case began in Virginia Beach Circuit Court as CL25-6432.

Starr Surplus Lines Insurance Company removed the case to federal court in December 2025. The federal court returned it to state court in June 2026, after the parties consented to remand.

The federal docket states no dollar amount. Foreclosurepedia has not yet reviewed the state complaint and will not characterize its allegations until it has. What the caption already shows is Assero, 24 Asset Management, and San Roman sued together.

What Labor Should Do Right Now

Build the claim before the transition buries it. Use a spreadsheet that lists the work order or asset number, the service performed, the date performed, and the amount owed. Keep every invoice, email, and text message that acknowledges the debt.

File that claim with HUD in writing and file a complaint with HUD OIG. Preserve mechanic’s lien rights property by property. Talk to a qui tam attorney about whether the documentation supports a False Claims Act filing. Most importantly, file your lawsuit NOW!

Stop accepting work orders from a company that is losing its contract, owes HUD damages, and owes you. Dispatch continues until Labor says no.

Whether a payment bond exists on these awards, and who the surety is, remains unanswered in the public record. If a bond exists, Labor may be able to make a claim against it without waiting on HUD.

If you are owed money by 24 Asset Management, send the details to the Foreclosurepedia tip line at [email protected]. Every claim documented now becomes leverage later.

The Playbook Has Not Changed

Fast Eddie San Roman has run this playbook since Assero. Bill the government, bank the payment, stall Labor, and walk away without a bankruptcy court. The contract is gone and the damages are coming. Labor is still owed.

HUD’s procurement office knew, wrote that it knew, and kept the awardee in the program while victims kept arriving. Silence from a federal agency is a decision, and Labor is paying for it.

Foreclosurepedia will keep documenting who knew, who profited, and who still has not paid. If 24 Asset Management owes you, send your records to [email protected].

The Bond Market Just Called the Administration’s Bluff

By
Editor In Chief
-

Wednesday morning, the Treasury market stopped cooperating. Yields from the 2-year through the 10-year jumped between 12 and 14 basis points before lunch. The 7-year pushed past 5 percent. The 10-year touched 5.10 percent. The trigger was S&P Global’s flash PMI, which showed an economy running hot with inflation baked into both services and manufacturing. Treasury also announced another buyback auction for Thursday. The market ignored it.

The 10-year is the number that matters most to anyone downstream of a mortgage. It rose 13 basis points to 5.10 percent, a level not seen since 2007. For two weeks it had pressed against 5 percent and fallen back. This morning it went through. The last time the benchmark sat this high, the subprime collapse was already underway. Foreclosure field services was about to become the biggest growth industry in the country.

What the data said

S&P Global’s services PMI climbed to 58.7 in September, its highest reading in nearly five years. Manufacturing hit 56.7, a level not seen in more than four years. The composite reached 58.4, and input costs rose at the fastest pace in nearly four years. Rising input costs carry the real warning. Businesses are paying more, and they will pass those costs on.

The afternoon brought worse news. A 5-year note auction cleared at 5.033 percent, far above the recent average of 4.186 percent. Indirect bidders, a group that includes foreign central banks, took only 54 percent against a typical 65 percent. Global buyers of U.S. debt were offered higher yields and still stayed home.

The administration’s tools are not working

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s answer was another buyback. Treasury said it would repurchase up to $6 billion at face value in 20- and 30-year bonds. That matches the cap on the September 11 buyback, after which yields climbed further. Analysts told CNN the buybacks are too small to matter in a Treasury market worth more than $30 trillion. Six billion dollars is a gesture. The bond market recognized it as one.

The pressure is not coming only from the data. Brent crude pushed back toward $100 a barrel after Trump voiced support for a U.S. diesel export ban, feeding the inflation fears. Brent settled up 3.86 percent at $103.08. Bloomberg measured the 10-year’s intraday move as the biggest since the April 2025 “Liberation Day” tariffs. That comparison should alarm the White House. The last time the bond market moved this hard, it was reacting to this administration’s own policy.

The Federal Reserve is not offering relief either. The Fed raised rates by 25 basis points last week and signaled more hikes are coming. Governor Michael Barr suggested further hikes may be needed, and CME FedWatch put the odds of an October hike at 64 percent. Markets are not pricing a soft landing. They are pricing an administration that talks about lower rates while its tariff, energy and borrowing decisions push rates higher.

Where the bill lands

The consequences run straight downhill to Labor. Thirty-year fixed mortgage rates climbed to 7.12 percent on the same day. Higher borrowing costs strain adjustable-rate borrowers, HELOC holders and second-lien homeowners first. That strain eventually becomes delinquency. Delinquency becomes work orders for Field Service Technicians and Inspectors.

More work orders do not mean better pay. Inspections still pay $7 to $9. Grass cuts still pay $25 to $30. Winterizations still pay $45 to $50. None of those rates move when the 10-year moves. The margin expands at the order mill and the servicer. It does not expand at the truck.

Fuel runs the other direction, and it is running at a record. AAA puts today’s national diesel average at $6.52 a gallon. The all-time high was set yesterday at $6.53. A year ago, diesel averaged $3.69. The price has nearly doubled in twelve months.

Diesel is the fuel of the trailer hauls, the debris runs and the trucks that move a crew between properties. The war with Iran has disrupted the world’s flow of fuel. The President blamed Ukrainian strikes on Russian refineries for the record, even as he floats the export ban that spooked oil markets this week. Field Service Technicians and Inspectors buy their own fuel. No national has announced a fuel adjustment. None is likely to.

The tariff tax on the truck bed

Fuel is only half of what Labor pays out of pocket. The other half is materials, and the administration has taxed nearly all of them. Items made entirely or mostly from steel, aluminum or copper carry a 50 percent tariff. Derivative metal products carry 25 percent. Softwood lumber carries 10 percent, and derivative wood products carry 25 percent.

That list reads like a preservation crew’s supply run. The plywood that boards a broken window is lumber. The hasps, padlocks, hinges and screws that secure a door are steel. The copper that patches a line before a winterization is copper. Kitchen cabinets and bathroom vanities picked up their own tariffs too, with scheduled increases to 30 and 50 percent that took effect January 1. Those are the replacement parts for the work that follows a vandalized REO.

Contractors across the building trades have already felt the result. An AGC-NCCER survey found 43 percent of general contractors had a project canceled, postponed or scaled back because of tariff-driven material costs. General contractors can write escalation clauses into their bids. Field Service Technicians and Inspectors cannot. The price grid a national hands Labor has no tariff line. A preservation bid approved at last year’s pricing gets built with this year’s plywood and this year’s steel. Labor eats the difference.

This is the policy stack the bond market priced Wednesday. Tariffs raise material costs. War and export-ban talk raise fuel costs. Both feed the inflation data that pushed yields to their highest level since 2007. For Labor, each of those costs arrives as a line item on a job that pays the same as it did before any of them.

Credit gets expensive at the top

Order mills that operate on float and lines of credit now pay more to borrow. Foreclosurepedia has already documented what happens when money gets tight at the top of the chain. At NMFS and 24 Asset Management, both flagged NON-PAY in our Firm Registry, the pattern was identical. Insiders and operating bills got paid first. Labor got paid last, or never. A rate environment built for more hikes is an environment built for more of that.

The Fed’s rate hikes are also designed to cool hiring. Factory hiring in September rose at the fastest pace since February 2021. The Fed means to slow that. When the labor market softens, W-2 workers have unemployment insurance. Most Field Service Technicians and Inspectors are paid on 1099s. They have nothing.

The bottom line

The bond market delivered a verdict Wednesday. It does not believe the administration’s buybacks, its energy improvisation or its promises of cheaper money. Wall Street will hedge that risk. The servicers will pass it along. Labor will absorb it at $8 an inspection, with a tank of diesel that has never cost more.

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