United States Attorney Andrew M. Luger announced an indictment charging KYLE LEWIS KIRSCHMAN, 52, and HOLLY KAY BLOOM, 37, with conspiring to commit public assistance fraud.  The indictment was filed in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis on December 21, 2016. According to the indictment, KIRSCHMAN owned a house in Mankato, Minn. The house was divided into two apartments. KIRSCHMAN occupied apartment 1. On June 13, 2006, KIRSCHMAN and BLOOM...

(Source: KEYC 12 News) MANKATO, Minn. - Two Mankato residents are each facing a federal charge for conspiracy to commit public assistance fraud. The charges were filed in December by U.S. Attorney Andrew Luger against 52-year-old Kyle Kirschman and 37-year-old Holly Bloom. It was the result of an investigation between the Blue Earth County Sheriff's Office Fraud Investigator and U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Kirschman...

BROOKLYN, N.Y. – James Bayfield, a self-described mortgage specialist, was convicted late yesterday by a federal jury in Brooklyn on all four counts charging bank fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bank fraud for his role in defrauding mortgage lending institutions and large financial institutions, including Amtrust Bank (Amtrust), Bank of America N.A. (BOA) and J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (Chase), in a multi-million-dollar mortgage...

PLANO, Texas – A 64-year-old Grand Prairie, Texas man has been sentenced to federal prison for his role in a conspiracy to commit bank fraud and perjury in the Eastern District of Texas, announced Acting U.S. Attorney Brit Featherston today. Melvin Ray Layman pleaded guilty on July 20, 2016, to conspiracy to commit bank fraud and conspiracy t commit perjury and was sentenced to 51 months in federal prison on Jan. 11, 2017 by U.S. District Judge...

ORANGE -- FBI agents raided Orange City Hall on Wednesday morning and the building was shut down as the investigation into alleged fraud and money laundering continues to unfold. A sign on the front door said the building would be closed temporarily "due to unforeseen circumstances." A federal agent was guarding the doorway and would not let reporters enter the building. "This morning, a search warrant executed by the FBI in the City of Orange...

(Source: nj.com) NEWARK -- The wife of an ex-Bayonne police officer who beat a handcuffed man was sentenced today to one year of probation for her part in a scheme to illegally obtain a $20,000 federal housing loan. Rose Lillo fought back tears as she apologized to U.S District Court Judge Kevin McNulty and pleaded to be allowed to stay with her family. "I have never asked anyone for anything in my 45 years," Lillo said. "My husband and my...

United Shore Financial Services LLC (USFS) has agreed to pay the United States $48 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.  USFS is headquartered in Troy, Michigan...

TRENTON, N.J. – A former supervisor at Amtrak in Essex County, New Jersey, today admitted soliciting and accepting more than $7,000 worth of items for his personal use from a vendor as a reward for spending more than $185,000 with the vendor in his capacity as an Amtrak Building and Bridges Supervisor, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced. Louis Moschitti, 68, of Fairless Hills, Pennsylvania, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Peter G...

Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced today that ROBERT LEES, a former senior executive of Universal Forest Products, Inc. (“UFP”), was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Kenneth M. Karas to 50 months in prison for conspiracy, mail fraud, money laundering, and making false statements in a loan application.  LEES was found guilty by a jury on May 20, 2016, after a seven-day trial...

BOSTON – Edward J. Tutunjian, who has owned and operated Boston Cab through his company, EJT Management, Inc., for more than four decades, was sentenced today in U.S. District Court in Boston for payroll tax evasion, employing illegal aliens and for failing to pay overtime wages. Tutunjian, 67, of Belmont, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Douglas P. Woodlock to 20 months of probation, 18 months of which must be spent at Coolidge House...

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Shannon C. Boston, 44, of Sunbury, Ohio, pleaded guilty in U.S. District court today to one count of failing to account for and pay over employment taxes to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Benjamin C. Glassman, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio, Kathy A. Enstrom, Special Agent in Charge, Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Criminal Investigation, Cincinnati Field Office, James Vanderberg, Special Agent in...

(Source: housingwire.com) A little over five years ago, the government sued Allied Home Mortgage, its various entities, and its president and CEO, Jim Hodge for $834 million, claiming that Allied engaged in repeated fraud against the Federal Housing Administration over a 10-year period. The government claimed that Allied Home Mortgage, Allied Home Mortgage Capital Corporation, at Hodge’s direction committed repeated violations of the False...

(Source: chicagolawbulletin.com) A federal judge has found an Aurora attorney liable for more than $10 million after previously finding he filed false documents with the government. In a 12-page memorandum opinion, U.S. District Judge John J. Tharp Jr. ruled sole practitioner Robert S. Luce owes the government $3,452,499 in damages for 237 defaulted mortgage loans his mortgage company MDR Mortgage Corp. certified while it remained an approved...

HOUSTON – A federal jury has found the entities formerly known as Allied Home Mortgage Capital Corporation (Allied Capital) and Allied Home Mortgage Corporation (Allied Corporation) as well as president and CEO Jim C. Hodge liable in connection with more than a decade of fraudulent misconduct related to Allied’s participation in the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) mortgage insurance program. The jury returned the verdicts late yesterday...

Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, William F. Sweeney Jr., the Assistant Director-in-Charge of the New York Field Division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”), and Christina Scaringi, the Special Agent-in-Charge of the Northeast Region of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (“HUD”), today announced the unsealing of an Indictment charging five defendants with conspiracy to...

(Source: theislandnow.com) Daniel Melamed, a Great Neck resident and Brooklyn real estate developer, was indicted for the second time in two years last Tuesday for schemes involving alleged residential mortgage fraud and larcenies, the state attorney general’s office announced.   Melamed, 40, and six others allegedly defrauded banks and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development through the use of shell corporations, forged...

(Source: northjersey.com) PATERSON – In their most recent subpoenas, federal investigators have requested city records covering Paterson’s use of millions of dollars of federal funding dating back to 2010, according to local officials. The subpoenas for records extending back over six years suggest the federal probe could be examining the actions taken not only by the current administration of Mayor Jose “Joey” Torres but also those under his...

(realestaterama.com) BROOKLYN – (RealEstateRama) — Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman announced today the indictment of Brooklyn real estate developer Daniel Melamed, 40, his employee Carmen Morales, 51, former employee Denise Morales, 29, and associates Curt Joseph, 48, Christopher Magliocca, 29, Abraham Perez, 66, and David Soufeh, 37, for their roles in multiple schemes involving alleged residential mortgage fraud and larcenies throughout...

A Bayonne, New Jersey, man was sentenced today to 15 months in prison for paying $65,000 in bribes to a Bayonne public official in return for the public official’s assistance in securing projects funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced.   Joseph Arrigo, 47, previously pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Peter G. Sheridan to an information charging him with one count...

(USAO, CT) Deirdre M. Daly, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, today announced that MICHELLE LEFAOSEU, also known as “Michelle Bennett,” “Michelle Lee” and “Michelle Page,” 42, of Huntington Beach, Calif., was sentenced yesterday by U.S. District Judge Stefan R. Underhill in Bridgeport to 12 months and one day of imprisonment, followed by one year of supervised release, for participating in an extensive mortgage loan...