Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard announced a settlement Tuesday with Harvest Properties Inc. of Tucson resolving a fraud lawsuit against the foreclosure rescue company. 

Harvest Properties agreed to pay $350,000 to 100 consumers as part of the settlement, which included no admission of wrongdoing.

Goddard said the lawsuit alleged that Harvest used deceptive practices to buy homes from distressed homeowners at discount prices. The state claimed that Harvest would acquire homes for resale, but misrepresent the costs of repairs needed to sell the house and financial aspects of the sales.

Colin Reilly, vice president of Harvest Properties, explained the reasons for entering the consent judgment: “The state of Arizona has no statutes or regulations governing so-called ‘pre-foreclosure sales.’ Harvest has conducted business in Arizona consistent with similar operations nationwide. Harvest’s intentions were to offer homeowners a legitimate alternative to bank foreclosure on their homes. “We believed we were following the law in our transactions with homeowners and have cooperated with the Attorney General’s office for the duration of the three-year investigation into this industry.

“We discovered some conduct by former employees, while consistent with industry standards, was determined by the Attorney General to be improper. We have entered into this consent judgment with the hope that it will set standards for ‘best practices‚‘ in our industry. Now that this is behind us, we can concentrate on helping homeowners who, through no fault of their own, owe more money on their mortgage than their home is worth,” he said in the statement.