Frank Ward fraud case still dragging on

Neither Frank Ward nor his attorney showed up in Wicomico County Circuit Court Thursday morning for their injunction hearing. The injunction is intended to keep Ward from violating an already-issued order.

The order, issued in 2010 by the Maryland Commissioner of Financial Regulation (‘CFR’), requires Frank Ward to “cease and desist from questionable lending and mortgage transactions.” A final version of the order was issued in 2013.

But Thursday’s hearing was all about imposing stiffer penalties if Ward were to violate the order, which the CFR claims he already is.

In a July affidavit, the CFR states that Ward has failed to pay civil fines, failed to dismiss pending foreclosures, and failed to pay restitution to the people from whom he collected illegal fees – all violations of the 2013 Final Order.

However, the only the thing the CFR can really do is fine Ward — or try to — because the CFR is an administrative body, not a judicial one.

The injunction would mean the court could not only fine Ward, but also hold him in contempt.

On Thursday, the judge, in effect, granted the injunction, with minor changes, although it won’t technically be granted until he signs the paperwork, which he is expected to do within a week.

Once the injunction is served, Ward will have 30 days to respond. However, he can appeal, as can the state.
We’re told that most likely the case will continue to play out through the appeals process for the foreseeable future.

47 ABC went to Ward’s house in Pocomoke on Thursday. No one answered.
It’s now more than a decade since Frank Ward started acting as an unlicensed mortgage lender, and about five years since the CFR found he was defrauding people. Ward still owes hundreds of thousands of dollars in interest to more than forty victims. Those victims, we are told, have not seen one cent.