(Source: syracuse.com) SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- A mortgage bank company owned by the chairman of the Onondaga County Legislature and a former Syracuse city auditor was a victim in a mortgage fraud scheme that stole up to $5 million, according to a federal grand jury indictment. Four New York City people were indicted this week in Buffalo on charges of using falsified documents to obtain inflated mortgages on eight homes in the Bronx from June 2008 to...

(Source: USAO, CT) Deirdre M. Daly, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, today announced that a federal grand jury in Bridgeport has returned a superseding indictment charging BRADFORD BARNEYS, 50, of Odenton, Maryland, with conspiring with TIMOTHY W. BURKE in a long-running fraud scheme that targeted distressed homeowners throughout Connecticut.  BARNEYS is an attorney licensed to practice in Connecticut and has an...

BUFFALO, N.Y.-U.S. Attorney William J. Hochul Jr. announced today that a federal grand jury has returned a 24 count indictment charging Gregory Gibbons, 50, of Thornwood, NY; Julio Rodriguez, 51, of Bronx, NY; Laurence Savedoff, 42, of New City, NY, and Tina Brown, 40, of Bronx, New York with conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud affecting financial institutions, wire and mail fraud affecting financial institutions, and bank fraud. The...

(source: wnep.com) HAZLETON -- State police, the IRS, and other federal agents raided the home of a controversial real estate agent Monday morning. Agents carried boxes out of the home of Ignacio Beato on Lincoln Street in Hazleton. They were there for about three hours. The case against Ignacio Beato is growing. What appeared to be a real estate scam in Hazleton may be much more. That's why federal agencies are now involved, with the Luzerne...

(Source: USAO, MD) Baltimore, Maryland – U.S. District Judge James K. Bredar sentenced Alberic Okou Agodio, age 31, of Bethesda, Maryland, today to 61 months in prison followed by five years of supervised release for conspiracy, wire fraud, and aggravated identity theft, arising from a mortgage fraud scheme in which he used the names of immigrants and students, along with false financial information, to obtain $3.8 million in home mortgage...

(Source: USAO, CT) Deirdre M. Daly, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, today announced that a federal grand jury in Bridgeport has returned an indictment charging TIMOTHY W. BURKE, also known as “Bill Burke,” “William Burke,” “Kerry Saunders,” “Pat Riley,” “Jim Caldwell,” “Jim Saunders,” “Tom Morrisey,” “Jimmy,” “Phil Burke,” “Phil,” “Burt,” “James Burke,” and “M. Soler,” 64, of Easton, with fraud, tax, money laundering and...

(Source: presstelegram.com) A Lakewood woman has been found guilty of real estate fraud, causing $662,000 in losses to lenders. Felicia Muhammad, 45, was convicted on five felony counts for lying to banks that funded mortgages for three properties that later went into default, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a statement. At the time of the fraud, she was a licensed real estate broker living in Long Beach. Muhammad was convicted Friday...

(Source: USAO, CT)Deirdre M. Daly, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, announced that SERJ GEUTSSOYAN, also known as “Anthony Kirk,” 33, of Santa Ana, Calif., pleaded guilty today before U.S. District Judge Stefan R. Underhill in Bridgeport to conspiring to defraud homeowners across the United States who were seeking mortgage loan modifications. According to court documents and statements made in court, GEUTSSOYAN and others...

(Source: USAO, LA) BATON ROUGE, LA - United States Attorney Walt Green announced the convictions of RHODA RENAE ROBERTSON, age 47, and LOUELLA ROBERTSON, age 68, both of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, who pled guilty before U.S. District Judges Shelley Dick and John deGravelles, respectively, to theft of government funds, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 641.  RHODA ROBERTSON was convicted on February 16, 2016.  LOUELLA...

(Source: USAO, CT) Deirdre M. Daly, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, today announced that MEHDI MOAREFIAN, a.k.a. “Michael Miller,” 36, and DANIEL SHIAU, a.k.a. “Scott Decker,” 30, both of Irvine, Calif., pleaded guilty yesterday in Bridgeport federal court to conspiring to defraud homeowners across the United States who were seeking mortgage loan modifications. According to court documents and statements made in court,...

(Source: USAO, MD) Greenbelt, Maryland – A federal grand jury returned an indictment late yesterday against Rene de Jesus de Leon, age 47, and his wife, Pedrina Rodriguez Bonilla, age 37, both of Silver Spring, Maryland, and Ana Maritza Gomez, age 43, of Hyattsville, Maryland, on charges arising from a residential mortgage fraud scheme. The indictment was announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein; Deputy...

(Source: USAO, NJ) TRENTON, N.J. –A part owner of Bayway Lumber, a Linden, New Jersey, company that sold commercial and industrial products to numerous public and private entities, today admitted his role in a scheme to defraud customers out of $708,386, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced. Robert R. Dattilo, 61, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Peter G. Sheridan in Trenton federal court to an information charging him with one...

(Source: USAO SC) United States Attorney Bill Nettles stated that Michael Yant, age 40, of Lexington, South Carolina, was sentenced today in federal court in Columbia, South Carolina, for Wire Fraud, a violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1343, in connection with a mortgage fraud scheme.  United States District Judge Joseph F. Anderson, Jr., of Columbia sentenced Yant to five months of incarceration, to be followed by five months home confinement....

(Source: The State) A Lexington man was sentenced in federal court Monday for wire fraud. Lexington’s Michael Yant, 40, was sentenced to to five months in jail, followed by five months of home confinement, in U.S. District Court in Columbia, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Winston Holliday, adding Yant also was ordered to pay almost $270,000 in restitution. Yant committed mortgage fraud on 15 Federal Housing Administration loans, said Holliday,...

(Source: FBI.gov) NEWARK N.J.—An Elizabeth, New Jersey, man today admitted recruiting straw buyers and submitting bogus loan applications as part of large-scale mortgage fraud scheme involving properties in northern New Jersey, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced. Miguel LaRosa, 48, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Susan D. Wigenton in Newark federal court of an information charging him with one count of conspiracy to commit wire...

(Source: Justice.gov) Franklin American Mortgage Company has agreed to pay the United States $70 million to resolve allegations that it violated the False Claims Act by knowingly originating and underwriting mortgage loans insured by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Federal Housing Administration (FHA) that did not meet applicable requirements, the Justice Department announced today.  Franklin American is...

(Source: Realtytoday.com) Real estate attorney, Hyacinth Bellerose, pleaded guilty in participating in a wide-ranged scheme to defraud banks and mortgage companies. The scheme was done as part of a conspiracy involving sham "short" sales of numerous residential properties in the Merrimack Valley of Massachusetts. Bellerose was convicted with one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud. According to the press release of the U.S. Attorney's...

(Source: Providence Journal Newspaper) PROVIDENCE, R.I. - Federal prosecutors say a former Providence City Council candidate has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bank fraud for obtaining a $157,000 federally insured mortgage loan fraudulently by using the identity of a dead person. Authorities say 34-year-old Franchesco Franco, of Providence, a former mortgage loan originator, made false statements on a mortgage loan application and...

Suit Alleges that Purported Charity Concealed Problem Lenders from Federal Housing Administration (Source: USAO, Eastern District of New York) Kelly T. Currie, Acting United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, David A. Montoya, Inspector General for the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and Frederick W. Gibson, Acting Inspector General for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, announced the filing of a civil...

(Source: DOJ) WASHINGTON – The owner of a Florida mortgage company was sentenced today to serve 135 months in prison for orchestrating a $64 million mortgage fraud scheme. Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Wifredo A. Ferrer of the Southern District of Florida and Special Agent in Charge Nadine Gurley of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD OIG)...