(Source: USAO, Western District of Missouri) JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – Tammy Dickinson, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that the former vice president of a Pulaski County, Mo., bank was sentenced in federal court today for leading a $4.1 million conspiracy to defraud the Small Business Administration, as well as participating in a separate and unrelated $18.2 million scheme to defraud the federal government...

(USAO, CT) ARIA MALEKI, 33, of Santa Ana, Calif., was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Stefan R. Underhill in Bridgeport to 112 months of imprisonment, followed by three years of supervised release, for heading a mortgage loan modification scheme that defrauded more than 1,000 struggling homeowners across the United States. “This defendant presided over a scheme that preyed on struggling homeowners in Connecticut and across the United...

A former Montgomery attorney pleaded guilty on Thursday to charges related to defrauding the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development. Christopher B. Pitts, 46, now of Atlanta, pleaded guilty to wire fraud affecting a financial institution, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Alabama. Pitts served as a closing attorney for the sales of all homes owned by HUD in northern and central Alabama between...

(USAO, OH) A former Youngstown man was sentenced to more than three years in prison for crimes related to the purchase of a dozen homes in Mahoning County, said Carole S. Rendon, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio, and Steven D. Anthony, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Cleveland office. R. Allen Sinclair, 52, of Suwanee, Georgia, was sentenced to 41 months in prison and ordered to pay approximately $830,000 in...

A New York parole board freed Kwame Abdul-Haqq in 2004 after he served time for attempted murder, robbery, burglary and kidnapping. Just three years later, Abdul-Haqq was hired by the state of Indiana — as a prison guard. The 52-year-old Anderson man was charged Wednesday in a federal indictment with defrauding the state of Indiana out of the $175,000 he was paid when he worked as an officer at the Pendleton Correctional Facility, a maximum...

Indianapolis – United States Attorney Josh J. Minkler announced today the indictment of an Anderson man on six counts of wire fraud, two counts of making false statements on a loan or credit application, and one count of making false declarations before the court. Kwame Abdul-Haqq, 52, Anderson, was indicted by a federal grand jury in Indianapolis. Robert Borum has a lengthy criminal history in New York, including convictions for attempted...

(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...

(Source: phillyvoice.com) Two Chester men pleaded guilty on Wednesday to a multi-year conspiracy that involved filing false deeds on Delaware County homes and false tax forms against judges, law enforcement and other government employees in an effort to intimidate them, the U.S. Attorney's Office announced. Steven Hameed, 57, and Darnell Young, 48, both of Chester, pleaded guilty to all charges spelled out in an indictment detailing their...

(USAO, IN) HAMMOND- United States Attorney David A. Capp announced that a federal grand jury in Hammond returned an indictment charging three individuals for their part in a house flipping scheme involving Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) properties. The indictment charges Sergio Garcia, Sr.,46, of Chicago, IL and Sergio Garcia, Jr., 27, of Lowell, IN with conspiracy to commit mail fraud and ten substantive counts of mail fraud...

(Post-Tribune News) A Lowell man and two Illinois men were indicted by a federal grand jury for a HUD house flipping scheme in several communities across Northwest Indiana and the southwest suburbs of Chicago. Sergio Garcia Sr., 46, of Chicago, and Sergio Garcia Jr., 27, of Lowell, each face one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and 10 counts of mail fraud. Lansing, Ill., resident Timothy D. Greene, 29, faces one count of submitting...

(USAO, CT) Deirdre M. Daly, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, announced that VICTOR CUEVAS, 52, of Bristol, waived his right to indictment and pleaded guilty today before U.S. District Judge Jeffrey A. Meyer in New Haven to conspiring with others to commit bank fraud in connection with his home mortgage loan applications. According to court documents and statements made in court, in the summer of 2013, CUEVAS, a City of...

Earlier today, David Gotterup pleaded guilty at the federal courthouse in Brooklyn, New York, to conspiracy to commit wire fraud by defrauding distressed homeowners in a loan modification scheme.  When sentenced, Gotterup faces up to 30 years in prison, as well as restitution, criminal forfeiture, and a fine. The guilty plea was announced by Robert L. Capers, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York; Diego Rodriguez,...

(USAO, NJ) TRENTON, N.J. – A West New York, New Jersey, man who fraudulently obtained a federally insured mortgage for a West New York rental property today admitted intentionally failing to make loan payments while using $149,000 in rental income from the property for personal expenses, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced. Ruben Vargas, 65, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Freda L. Wolfson to an information charging him with one...

(Source: USAO, MD) Baltimore, Maryland – Michael Gerard Camphor, age 60, of Baltimore, pleaded guilty today to charges arising from the fraudulent purchase of four properties in Baltimore, using fraudulent loan documentation and straw purchasers, resulting in losses of over $736,000. 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...

(Source: USAO, CT) Deirdre M. Daly, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, announced that JOHN VESCERA, 60, of Dana Point, Calif., waived his right to indictment and pleaded guilty today before Chief U.S. District Judge Janet C. Hall in New Haven to false advertising and misusing a government seal in connection with the provision of mortgage modification services. According to court documents and statements made in court,...

(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...