President Bush pardoned a Brooklyn real estate developer accused of scamming hundreds of poor, minority homebuyers - and whose father donated $28,500 to the Republican Party this year.
Bush pardoned Isaac Toussie, 36, two days before Christmas in a gesture of mercy that outraged ex-customers who said they were duped into buying overpriced, defective homes.
"We're in the middle of a mortgage crisis [and] this is somebody who was alleged to have participated in predatory lending practices," said Peter Seidman, a lawyer who represents 460 people who say they were fleeced.
"To pardon Isaac Toussie is a kick in the teeth to homeowners struggling with mortgages they can't afford."
Neither the White House nor the Justice Department would say why Toussie deserved the pardon, which clears his record of convictions in a 2003 guilty plea for mail fraud and lying to the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Toussie admitted falsifying finances of prospective homebuyers seeking HUD mortgages.
His sentence was a "relatively mild" five months in prison and five months house arrest, a $10,000 fine and no restitution, one U.S. official said. Bush spokesman Tony Fratto said the administration does not discuss individual pardons. Toussie's lawyer, Henry Mazurek, also declined to comment.
Federal Election Commission records show Toussie's father, Robert, made his first political donation last April - $28,500 to the Republican National Committee. On Aug. 7, U.S. Pardon Attorney Ronald Rodgers received Isaac Toussie's pardon petition, a Justice spokeswoman said.
"It clearly suggests a link between the pardon and campaign contributions," said Melanie Sloan, an ex-prosecutor with the liberal group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.
The victims' federal suit charged the Toussies lured "inexperienced and low income inner city minority first-time buyers into purchasing homes that they could not afford." The homes were overpriced by up to 50% and often defective, and the cost of mortgage payments was hidden, the suit said.
"The Toussies also fraudulently advertised sponsorship by the NAACP, alleged praise from black celebrities such as Maya Angelou, Whoopi Goldberg and former Mayor David Dinkins...none of whom made any such endorsements," the suit alleges. Toussie's lawyers denied the allegations and said "many plaintiffs were complicit" in the fraud.
Court papers filed in 2005 seeking an early end to federal probation cited Toussie's "exceptional behavior" setting up training programs for inmates at Otisville Federal Prison Camp. Toussie is now working as a real estate and marketing consultant.