Karl Oreste, 56, Miramar, Florida, Marie Lucie Tondreau, a/k/a Lucie Tondreau, 54, North Miami, Florida, Okechukwu Josiah Odunna, a/k/a O.J. Odunna, 49, Lauderdale Lakes, Florida, and Kelly Augustin, 57, North Miami, have been charged for their roles in an alleged scheme whereby they recruited and paid people to pose as borrowers to purchase properties.
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Randy Poulson, 42, Woolwich Township, New Jersey, the owner and operator of Equity Capital Investments LLC, is charged with allegedly scamming distressed homeowners into giving him their houses and then soliciting fake real estate investments from private investors, secured by those same properties, that netted him more than $3 million in illicit profits.
Svetislav Vujovic, 41, Brunswick, Ohio, was convicted of 14 counts related to illegally receiving more than $3 million from the St. Paul Croatian Federal Credit Union in exchange for cash payments to the credit union’s chief operating officer. Vujovic corruptly gave cash payments totaling approximately $20,000 to induce and reward the CEO for approving and facilitating the approval of fraudulent loans.
Kelly Gearhart, 53, Wadsworth, Ohio, a real estate developer, pleaded guilty to federal fraud and money laundering charges for bilking investors who put money into real estate projects. Gearhart told told investors that their investments—which he called loans and promised would be paid back with interest—were secured by specific lots when in fact they were not.
Reunion Mortgage, Inc. and its former co-owners, David Thayer, and R. Kent Harvey, have agreed to pay $1.04 million to settle allegations that the company submitted false claims to the Federal Housing Administration in violation of the False Claims Act, 31 U.S.C. §§ 3729-33.
Seamus P. Dillon, 37, Ada, Michigan, was sentenced to two years in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release, after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit mortgage fraud. Dillon and his cohorts made a series of false statements designed to defraud the lender and obtained approximately $850,000, which they used for their own purposes.
Domingos Dias, 44, formerly of Trumbull, Connecticut, and currently residing in Easton, Connecticut, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Stefan R. Underhill to 30 months of imprisonment, followed by three years of supervised release, for his involvement in a mortgage fraud scheme through the use of straw buyers that caused more than $3 million in losses to lenders.
Daniel Ira Colton, 64, Annapolis, Maryland and Raleigh, North Carolina, was sentenced to two years in prison followed by three years of supervised release for conspiracy to commit extortion and to making false statements. Colton offered money, entertainment, mortgage payments, and monetary and in-kind campaign contributions to state and local government officials in exchange for favorable official actions, including assisting in the acquisition of surplus property and land from the county for development by Day Homes.
Stephen Mayer, 50, Miami Beach, Florida, has been indicted and charged with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud affecting a financial institution. Mayer allegedly bought at least 24 properties, reselling them (usually on the same day) to his “investors,” netting a profit of approximately $1,528,790.
Abbe Edelman, 50, Livingston, New Jersey, was arrested at his home by federal law enforcement officers on charges that he allegedly ran a real estate investment scheme that bilked victims out of $4 million.