(Source: USAO, MD) Baltimore, Maryland – Real estate agent Christopher A. Kwegan, age 59, of Randallstown, Maryland pleaded guilty today to charges arising from the fraudulent purchase of a Baltimore City property using fraudulent loan documentation and a straw purchaser.

The guilty plea was announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein; Special Agent in Charge Kevin Perkins of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Baltimore Field Office; Special Agent in Charge Cary A. Rubenstein of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Office of Inspector General; and Special Agent in Charge Brian Murphy of the United States Secret Service - Baltimore Field Office.

According to his guilty plea, in the summer of 2008, Kwegan learned that Mr. K.D. was trying to sell a row house he owned in Baltimore City on Washington Boulevard.  Mr. K.D. had purchased the property 10 years earlier for $11,500.  Kwegan told Mr. K.D. that he could sell it for $75,000.  Mr. K.D. was dubious, but agreed to sell it for that price.

Rather than trying to sell the property at the actual market price, Kwegan requested assistence from accountant Cecil Chester and real estate agent/consultant Michael Camphor, who were already operating a mortgage fraud scheme.  Kwegan arranged to use the personal identifiers of an individual recruited by Chester – Ms. D.B. – to buy the property as a straw purchaser. A “straw purchaser” is an individual whose name and personal identifiers are used by fraudsters to acquire the property, but who does not contribute his or her own funds to the purchase and who has no intention of actually...