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 Read More

PHILADELPHIA – Joel Tillett, 36, of Whitehall, PA, was sentenced today to four years in prison and ordered to pay restitution of $979,562.20 in connection with a mortgage fraud conspiracy.  Tillett, the former general manager of Madison Funding, Inc., a now-defunct Allentown mortgage loan Read More

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 Read More

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 Read More

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 Read More

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 Read More

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 Read More

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 Read More

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. Read More

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 Read More

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 Read More

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 Read More

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 Read More

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 Read More

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 Read More

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 Read More

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 Read More

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 Read More

CANTON — Federal housing officials are requesting Stark Metropolitan Housing Authority either repay or document about $10.5 million in public housing funds which an investigation states was either improperly documented or spent. An audit report, recently released from the U.S. Department of Read More

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 Read More