The former manager of an Allentown mortgage company was sentenced Wednesday to four years in prison for his role in a long-running mortgage fraud scheme. U.S. District Judge Harvey R. Bartle also ordered Joel Tillett, 36, of Whitehall Township, to pay nearly $980,000 in restitution after he pleaded guilty in May to conspiracy and forgery to obtain a government-insured loan. According to court documents, Tillett and other employees of Madison…

SAN DIEGO – A federal grand jury has indicted San Diego businessman Michael A. Smith on charges that he engaged in an elaborate scheme to defraud the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the Mesa Grande Band of Mission Indians out of $1.25 million.  According to an indictment unsealed yesterday, Smith learned that the Mesa Grande Band of Mission Indians, located in San Diego County, had access to a HUD…

An investor in a Charleston real estate development was sentenced today to time served for his role in a 2007 mortgage scheme that bilked lenders out of more than $400,000. Jason G. Haywood, who has no prior criminal history, agreed in a deal with federal prosecutors to turn over 31 villas at 1 Rice Drive in West Ashley to the banks involved. . That would enable the lenders to sell the properties and recoup some if not all of their money.…

A subprime deal came back to haunt Fabrice Tourre, a former Goldman Sachs trader, when a federal jury in Manhattan found him liable for civil securities fraud. He is not the only one feeling the pain of a subprime transaction six years on. Hundreds of thousands of subprime borrowers are still struggling. Some of their mortgages ended up in another Goldman deal that was done at the same time as Mr. Tourre was working on his own financial alchemy…

RIDGELAND — A Ridgeland lawyer has been sentenced to nearly four years in prison for fraud. The July 2011 indictment says Michael Earwood and a partner formed Kinwood Capital Group LLC, a real estate business that operated from 1998 to 2006. Prosecutors say Earwood asked the partner for money to pay taxes on Kinwood’s property, but transferred the money to another business Earwood controlled. Earwood also was accused of transferring Kinwood…

Deirdre M. Daly, Acting United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, today announced that a federal grand jury sitting in Hartford has returned an indictment charging three individuals with participating in a mortgage fraud scheme involving the purchase of more than 40 properties throughout Connecticut.  The seven-count indictment, which was unsealed today, charges FILIPPOS MILIOS, also known as “Filip,” 54, of Newington,…

Massive federal budget cuts are stealing hope from the poor, elderly and disabled. As evidence of this horrific trend, in recent months during 2013 the Berkeley Housing Authority (BHA) notified 14 households that their Section 8 housing choice vouchers have been suspended until further notice. The BHA also served notice to around 200 additional households in the final stages of being eligible to receive Section 8 vouchers, that their…

President Barack Obama’s administration significantly overstated statistics from a year-long mortgage-fraud initiative, including total number of victims, their losses suffered and number of individuals criminally charged, according to an FBI memo. The Federal Bureau of Investigation, in the document sent today, asked members of the administration’s Mortgage Fraud Working Group to correct and update any public materials related to the results…

A Joliet Housing Authority official accused of defrauding the Chicago Housing Authority of nearly $200,000 with her husband’s help was drowning in debt and had filed for bankruptcy around the same time she was hired by the south suburban agency, court records show. In 2010 — just a few years after Cook County prosecutors said Charlene Potts and her now estranged spouse Scott Washington embezzled the CHA — Potts, claimed she owed more than $280,…

MOBILE, Alabama – A man who worked as a loan officer at a local mortgage company pleaded guilty today to providing phony documents to a lender to get a house loan approved for a client. Anthony Melvin Wilkes became the second Midtown Mortgage Co. employee to plead guilty to making a false statement on a loan application, and the third to be charged. Federal prosecutors bypassed a grand jury and negotiated the plea deal with defense attorney…

MOBILE, Alabama – Two more former mortgage broker employees accused of defrauding lenders pleaded not guilty to federal charges Wednesday, bringing the total number of defendants in the probe to a half-dozen. Prosecutors allege that employees who worked at Midtown Mortgage submitted fraudulent documents to the lenders in order to obtain mortgages for customers who otherwise would not qualify. Two of the defendants, Anthony Melvin Wilkes and…

MINNEAPOLIS—A federal indictment unsealed late yesterday charges a 38-year-old Maple Plain man with conspiring to defraud mortgage loan lenders. The indictment, which was filed on July 16, 2013, specifically charges Alpha Rashidi Mshihiri with one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud, three counts of bank fraud, two counts of wire fraud, one count of mail fraud, and one count of money laundering conspiracy. The indictment was unsealed…

A Bayonne man pleaded guilty today to his role in a bid-rigging scheme that fraudulently obtained tens of thousands of dollars in U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development funds through the City of Bayonne Department of Community Development, officials said. Leo Viguie, 38, of L.V. Renovations in Bayonne, pleaded guilty to one count of the theft of $40,000 in government funds before U.S. District Judge Peter G. Sheridan in Trenton, U.S.…

Deirdre M. Daly, Acting United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, announced that GABRIEL SERRANO, 47, of West Hartford, waived his right to indictment and pleaded guilty today before United States Magistrate Judge Donna F. Martinez in Hartford to conspiracy charges stemming from his role in an extensive mortgage fraud scheme.  SERRANO, an attorney, is a partner in the law firm of Serrano & Serrano, LLC. According to court…

Nikkijam30When the Housing Authority of the City of Pittsburgh was questioned by the city controller, a television station and federal auditors in the past year, it turned to Michael Syme. Mr. Syme, an attorney with Downtown-based Cohen & Grigsby, is one of a handful of top consultants to the authority, who weigh in on key decisions involving redevelopment, security and the agency's internal structure.

TRENTON — Shackled at his feet and in the custody of federal marshals, city developer Robert Kahan pleaded not guilty today to 25 counts of bank fraud, mail fraud and fraud against a local government receiving federal benefits. Kahan, 67, was indicted a week and a half ago for allegedly skimming local, state and federal funds intended for three housing projects in Trenton. He allegedly spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on personal items…

Jurors will hear final arguments today and begin deliberating whether a Manchester man is guilty of orchestrating an elaborate $13 million mortgage fraud scheme or was just the owner of a failed business, as his lawyers contend. Testimony in the trial of Michael Prieto wrapped up yesterday after seven days. Prieto did not testify. Defense lawyer Michael Iacopino called only one witness – Ted Perkins – who said he is friends with Prieto and…

TAMPA — A rent collector for the Pinellas County Housing Authority stole $23,126 on duty, the federal government charged Tuesday in U.S. District Court. Keomala Phandara Khammanivong, 32, worked at the French Villas public housing complex from 2008 to 2012, a court record states. French Villas is a 185-unit complex along 54th Avenue N in the Lealman area of Pinellas County. Known to coworkers as "La," she interviewed tenants, fielded complaints…

CONCORD – A number of local residents will be part of the fraud trial of a former Nashua resident. Federal prosecutors filed a list of 49 people they intend to call during Michael Prieto’s mail fraud and money laundering trial, set to begin Tuesday at U.S. District Court in Concord. Prieto is facing 11 charges and is accused of leading a mortgage fraud scheme that bilked dozens of homeowners and lenders from 2005 to 2007.

Lubertha Johnson Estates, one of the Southern Nevada Regional Housing Authority’s properties for low-income seniors, has problems. Over a year old, there are roof leaks and construction defect issues. The Resident Council president, James Treasure, sent me a list of 22 concerns. On Thursday, the neatly typed eight-page response from Terril Bates, director of Public Housing Operations at the authority, was presented to the nine-member authority…