Escondido (CA) man sentenced in tax and mortgage fraud case

Safieh Fard, 52, of Escondido, Calif., was sentenced late yesterday to 63 months in prison by U.S. District Judge Cormac J. Carney. Fard was also ordered to pay $594,000 in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) for unpaid individual income taxes. Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Tax Division Kathryn Keneally, U.S. Attorney Andre Birotte Jr., and the IRS made the announcement.

Fard was convicted by a Santa Ana, Calif., jury on Nov. 21, 2012, of one count of conspiracy to defraud the IRS and one count of conspiracy to launder the proceeds of bank fraud. Fard’s co-conspirators, her sister Sedigheh Bahramian, and two of her sons, Mohsen Kikalaye and Ahmad Kikalaye, pleaded guilty and were sentenced to related counts of bank fraud in 2010.

According to the indictment and evidence introduced at trial, starting in 1997 and continuing through 2004, Fard and her co-conspirators purchased valuable residential real estate properties, including numerous beachfront properties in Newport Beach, Calif. To obtain mortgages to purchase these properties, Fard and her co-conspirators provided false information to federally insured banks that substantially overstated their income and assets on mortgage applications. Fard submitted mortgage applications that falsely stated she earned over $40,000 per month, despite claiming no taxable income on her federal income tax returns during the eight year conspiracy.

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New Jersey loan officer indicted in large-scale mortgage fraud allegations

A Bergen County, N.J., woman was indicted today for her role in a long-running, large-scale mortgage fraud scheme that caused millions of dollars in losses, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced. Klary Arcentales, 44, of Lyndhurst, N.J., was charged in a five-count Indictment with one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud and four counts of bank fraud, all of which caused losses of at least $2 million.

According to the Indictment and other documents filed in this case:
As early as 2006, Arcentales engaged in a mortgage fraud conspiracy through a company called Premier Mortgage Services (PMS). Arcentales, a loan officer at PMS, provided fraudulent documents to financial institutions in connection with mortgage loan applications on behalf of “straw buyers” to induce those financial institutions to fund mortgage loans. Relying upon those false documents, financial institutions funded mortgage loans. Arcentales then profited illegally by receiving a commission from PMS for each mortgage loan that she closed and also profited illegally by diverting portions of the fraudulently-obtained mortgage proceeds for herself.

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SC closing attorney pleads guilty in straw buyer real estate development fraud

United States Attorney Bill Nettles stated [press release] today that Scott C. Allmon, age 38, of Easley, South Carolina, pled guilty today in federal court in Anderson to making false statements in connection with a real estate investment scheme, a violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1001. United States District Judge Timothy M. Cain accepted the plea and will impose sentence after he has reviewed the presentence report, which will be prepared by the U.S. Probation Office.

Evidence presented at the change of plea hearing established that Riviera Estates was a failed real estate development in the upstate of South Carolina. Rufus Revis and William Binnicker, who have already pled guilty, joined forces to put the project together. At base, Riviera Estates was a straw buyer scheme where investors would borrow the funds to construct homes in Riviera Estates and split the profits with Revis and Binnicker upon the completion and sale of the homes. According to one investor, “Rufus and William approached us, [and said] we were going to make $50,000 each. They would pay all costs, we would have no money in at all, they would just use our good credit for the loans. That’s all they needed was our good credit.”

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Ex General Manager of PA based Madison Funding pleads guilty in mortgage fraud conspiracy

In the following press release United States Attorney’s officer for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania announced that Joel Tillett, 36, of Whitehall, PA, pleaded guilty yesterday to charges in connection with a mortgage fraud conspiracy. Tillett, the former general manager of Madison Funding, Inc., a now-defunct Allentown mortgage loan origination company, pleaded guilty to conspiracy and to forging or counterfeiting loan documents. The fraud conspiracy caused mortgage lending businesses to issue millions of dollars’ worth of loans that were based on false information.

Tillett was indicted along with five former employees: Jason Boggs, Claribel Gonzalez, Florentina Peralta, Ghovanna Gonzalez, all of Allentown, and Angela Diaz, of Bethlehem. Denise Peralta, also of Allentown, was charged by information.

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Ex branch manager/ loan officer pleads guilty in Florida mortgage fraud case

In a press release United States Attorney Robert E. O’Neill announced that Alexander Ende (35, Boynton Beach) yesterday pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bank fraud and mail fraud, and wire fraud affecting a financial institution.  Ende faces a maximum penalty of 30 years in federal prison for his involvement in this mortgage fraud conspiracy.

According to the plea agreement, during the time frame of the conspiracy, Ende was a licensed mortgage agent working as a loan officer and branch manager for Apex Mortgage.  His day-to-day responsibilities at Apex Mortgage included meeting with and pre-qualifying clients for mortgage loans.  In or about late September 2006, Ende and two other individuals decided to purchase three condominium units at The Arbors at Carrollwood (“The Arbors”), a 390-unit condominium complex located at 3939 Ehrlich Road, in Tampa, Florida.  Ende, in his role as a mortgage agent, assisted one of his co-conspirators with putting together three loan applications to secure mortgage loans for the purchases. Included in the loan applications, were various material misrepresentations made by Ende to ensure that the co-conspirator qualified for the mortgage loans.  These material representations included false employment information, that the borrower intended to occupy all three condos as a primary residence, and the omission of other real estate owned by the borrower.  Ende also failed to disclose to the mortgage lenders that the developer of The Arbors was providing tens of thousands of dollars in cash-back incentives to entice the purchase of these condo units.

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Texas man sentenced after Insurance and Real Estate Investment fraud conviction

The Harris County 338th District Court has convicted Leslie Ray Collins of Sugar Land of a first-degree felony of misapplication of fiduciary property over the value of $200,000 and sentenced Collins to serve 12 years in prison.

The court also ordered Collins to pay $162,424 in restitution in the case initiated by a complaint to the Texas Department of Insurance Fraud Unit. The TDI Fraud Unit and the Harris County District Attorney’s Office investigated the complaint. TDI Fraud Prosecutor Jesse McClure prosecuted the case.

Investigators found that Collins, a former insurance agent, collected funds from a premium finance company to buy insurance but instead used the money to fund a commercial real estate scam that ended in the loss of several million dollars to investors. TDI revoked Collins’ insurance agent license in 2009.

TDI Press Release

Indiana Sec of State announces a conviction and warns about empty homes fraud

Secretary of State Connie Lawson is warning [press release] potential homebuyers about scam artists who use authentications from the Secretary of State’s office to swindle Hoosiers into fraudulent real estate transactions. The scam artists are domestic terrorists who refer to themselves as sovereign citizens and believe the government is illegitimate. They are using authentications from the Secretary of State’s office to create the illusion they own vacant property to trick Hoosiers into illegitimate home sales.

“Today, a judge sentenced Shela Amos of Indianapolis to 34 years for defrauding victims using the vacant home sale scheme,” said Secretary Lawson. “While this will stop Amos, unfortunately, others are waiting to pick up where she left off. Hoosiers should use extreme caution when dealing with sovereign citizens. They have no regard for the law and are master manipulators.”

The vacant home sale scheme is popular among sovereign citizens. At first, they identify abandoned homes and create documents claiming they own the property. Then they have a notary sign the document. They bring the signed document to the Secretary of State’s office and request an apostille, a gold seal for overseas authentications, to certify the notary’s signature is authentic. After the document has an apostille, they file it with the county recorder’s office. Once the document has the seal and is on file with the recorder’s office, the scam artists bring prospective home buyers to the recorder’s office to show them the document they created as proof they own the real estate they are selling.

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Connecticut man pleads guilty in two mortgage fraud schemes

A Meriden, Connecticut man today admitted his role in an extensive mortgage fraud scheme related to the purchases of numerous homes in New Haven, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman, District of New Jersey, announced.

Kwame Nkrumah, a/k/a Roger Woodson, 57, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Janet C. Hall in New Haven federal court to an indictment charging him with conspiracy to commit mail, bank, and wire fraud in two separate mortgage fraud schemes from September 2006 to November 2008. Nkrumah, his conspirators, and others received millions of dollars in residential real estate loans by submitting false loan applications, fictitious leases, and false down payments to mortgage lenders.

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