Tuesday, July 11, 2006
Oregon Pair Indicted in Mortgage Fraud Involving Five Million in Loans
A federal indictment was unsealed in Oregon alleging that Clifford J. Brigham and Melodie MacDuffee defrauded mortgage lenders out of approximately five million dollars between October 2004 and August 2005. The charges include Mail Fraud; Wire Fraud; Money Laundering; and Social Security Fraud. MacDuffee, an Oregon resident, was arrested without...
Ohio Woman Pleads Guilty in $1.8 Million Dollar Mortgage Fraud
Stephanie Woods plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to launder money and five counts of willful failure to file an income tax return (1999 through 2003) in connection with her alleged role in a $1.8 Million Mortgage Fraud that operated in the Dayton, Ohio area between 2003 and 2005. According to the information, between September 23, 2003...
Three Final Guilty Pleas in Illinois Mortgage Fraud
Former Freeport, Illinois business owner Philip R. Miskimon and Lena, Illinois resident Julie Smith pleaded guilty to conspiring to defraud the United States in connection with the FHA mortgage insurance program. Another Freeport, Illinois area business owner, Douglas L. Hastings, pleaded guilty to related charges contained in the same...
California Real Estate Broker Charged in Investment Fraud
Michael J. Schneider was chaged in a 102 count criminal felony complaint alleging Schneider stole over $17,500,000.00 dollars from a group of Santa Cruz, California investors who were led to believe that they were making secured real estate loans through Schneider‘s company, California Plan, Inc. Bail was set at Ten Million dollars...
Cincinnati Flipper Sentenced to Sixteen Months
Larry ‘Rocky’ Hensley, Cincinnati, Ohio was sentenced to 16 months in prison, followed by three years supervised release and ordered to perform 600 hours of community service. Hensley previously pled guilty to money laundering, conspiracy to commit fraud, and failure to file an income tax return in connection with a flipping scheme in Cincinnati,...
Monday, July 10, 2006
Six Indicted in New York Mortgage Fraud Scheme Include Former Haitian Military Leader
A Grand Jury in Suffolk County, New York returned an indictment charging six individuals with Grand Larceny in the First Degree and other crimes stemming from two separate real estate transactions involving a four-bedroom house located in the Town of East Setauket on Long Island’s North Shore. The indictment charges Frank DeGrasse, 45, South...
Texas Man Pleads Guilty After Failing to Report Wife’s Fraud Scheme
Clyde Parrish, 56, Athens, Texas pled guilty to one count of misprision of a felony in the federal court for the Eastern District of Texas. According to information presented in court, Parrish’s wife, Julia Parrish, had devised a scheme to defraud investors by encouraging them to invest in real estate in Ireland that Julia Parrish claimed to own,...
Friday, June 30, 2006
MBA Class Focuses on Detecting and Avoiding Mortgage Fraud
The MBA is presenting an hands-on training seminar “Detecting and Avoiding Mortgage Fraud” on July 18 and 19, 2006 at the MBA Headquarters in Washington D.C. The class provides information on current schemes plaguing the mortgage industry, focuses on the ability to better identify the schemes pre-funding and offers guidance on what to do with a...
Judge Orders Procedure for Relief from Dorean Group Tranfers (and Case Update)
Judge William Alsup signed an order on June 21, 2006 providing a procedure whereby homeowners that deeded their property to the Dorean Group as trustees may apply for modifications to the injunction to allow them to cure title defects cause by the Dorean Group debt elimination scheme. The order provides that homeowners seeking to modify the...
Web-Based Mortgage Elimination Scam Shut Down
A website that claimed to offer a method to consumers whereby they could pay off a 30-year mortgage in full, and make a quarter of a million dollars, all in a matter of months, was shut down by consent order. Following the filing of a lawsuit by New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer’s office in September 2005, Jeffrey Augugliaro, Malverne,...
Maryland Attorney Sentenced in Flipping Scheme
Reginald Derrick Greene, 41, Bowie, Maryland was sentenced today to one year and one day in prison, followed by 3 years of supervised release and was ordered to pay restitution of $191,984 for conspiracy to commit mail and bank fraud in relation to a mortgage flipping scheme. According to the statement of facts presented at his guilty plea on...
Texas Housing Scam Enjoined from Further Operations
A permanent injunction was issued that shut down a Texas housing scam that allegedly defrauded primarily Hispanic consumers out of tens of thousands of dollars in the Dallas, Texas area. The lawsuit filed by Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott in April 2005 under the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act (DTPA), has resulted in a permanent...
Former Connecticut Attorney Charged with Forgery
Edward Botwick, 50, former attorney, Woodbridge, Connecticut, was arrested and charged with one count of Forgery in the Second Degree, a felony carrying a maximum prison term of five years. Botwick is accused of forging another attorney’s signature on a release of a lis pendens filed against the property that Botwick’s client was attempting to...
Thursday, June 29, 2006
Chicago Title Sues Issuing Agent Alleged to have Misappropriated Funds
Chicago Title Insurance Company filed a civil lawsuit in the Federal Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania against the following defendants: Lexington & Concord Search and Abstract, LLC Glenn Randall Diane Smith Lexicon Property Services, Inc. White Stone Search & Abstract, Inc. The complaint states that it seeks to enjoin the defendants...
Five More Defendants Sentenced in Ohio Flipping Scheme
Five people were sentenced to prison terms this week in connection the ongoing mortgage fraud case in Cincinnatti, Ohio that has netted over three dozen guilty pleas. The case involves flipping of homes in low income neighborhoods of Cincinnatti. Those sentenced this week were: Richard Fraser, 46, Cape Coral, Florida, was sentenced to two...
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Rachel Dollar, the editor of Mortgage Fraud Blog, is an attorney and Certified Mortgage Banker who handles litigation for lending institutions and secondary market investors. She is an author and a nationally recognized speaker on the topic of mortgage fraud. Ms. Dollar is a shareholder with the law firm of 
