Mortgage Fraud Blog is the premier website for news and information on mortgage fraud and real estate fraud throughout the United States.
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 Smith Dollar, PC, is licensed to practice law in California and maintains offices in Santa Rosa, California. Email Ms. Dollar
Mortgage Fraud Blog is co-sponsored by Interthinx the leading provider of fraud services and solutions for the mortgage industry.
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Dollar in the News
Rachel Dollar, attorney, certified mortgage banker, certified financial crimes investigator and founding partner of the law firm Smith Dollar, was just 17 when she first took a job in a law office.
Women in Business 2010: Professional Services: Rachel Dollar
Father & Son Charged with Fraudulently Inflating Property Appraisals
James Merritt Eaton, 60, Laguna Beach, California, his son Brian Chandler Eaton, 28, Laguna Beach, California, and real estate appraisal firm executive Michael John Bell, 32, Corona del Mar, California, have been arrested on charges of conspiring to commit fraud by inflating property appraisal values with their real estate appraisal executive in...
Juan Carlos Alcala, 32, Windsor, California, plead no contest to nineteen felony counts and admitted three special allegations for defrauding real estate investors, money laundering, and elder fraud. By his pleas, Alcala admitted that the total loss resulting from his criminal activity exceeded $1,000,000.00. Alcala faces a maximum sentence of...
Real Estate Agent Sentenced in Mortgage Fraud Scheme
Felix Pichardo, 27, Lancaster, California was sentenced to eight years in federal prison and ordered to pay restitution of $777,000 in relation to a mortgage fraud scheme in which he "purchased" homes in Altadena and Riverside, California. Pichardo pleaded guilty in September, admitting that he used the identities of two victims to obtain...
Juan Sopprani, 31, Rancho Cucamonga, California, Karen Sopprani, 28, Rancho Cucamonga, California, Luis Molina, 41, Pomona, California and Earl Gutierrez, 36, Rancho Cucamonga, California, were arrested in connection with a mortgage fraud scheme.
On March 30, 2006, Juan and Karen Soppranisold their home in Fontanato the victim and subsequently...
Former Officers of Subprime Lender Charged With Fraud
Brad A. Morrice, Laguna Beach, California, former CEO and Co-Founder, Patti M. Dodge, Irvine, California, former CFO, David N. Kenneally,Rossmoor, California, former Controller of New Century Financial Corporation, have been charged with securities fraud for misleading investors as New Century'ssubprime mortgage business was collapsing in...
Federal Trade Commission Chairman Jon Leibowitz, joined by U.S. Senator Harry Reid, Nevada Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto, and Assistant Attorney General Tony West of the Civil Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, announced Operation Stolen Hopeas part of a continuing federal-state crackdown on mortgage foreclosure rescue and...
James Benjamin Duncan, 38; Hendrix Moreno Montecastro, 37; Helen Moreno Pedrino, 57; Maurice McLeod, 37; Charlie Sung Muk Choi, 34; Cindi Gayle Kelly, 33; and Thuan Nhan Du, 33; have been charged with 249 counts of securities fraud, grand theft, elder abuse and corporate ID theft against seven people in Riverside County, Califrnia.
Amy Schloemann, aka Amy Kinney; Karim Akil, aka Scott Kinney, aka Scott Kenney; Wonda Louise Kidd; Michelle McGuire; Kaska Clay, aka Mark Lane, aka Michael Lewis; James Ross; and Darnell Thomas were indicted on charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering for their roles in a mortgage fraud scheme that involved...
Oralia Hidalgo, 46, Colton, California, was sentenced to prison for real estate fraud related crimes. Hidalgo was ordered to serve five (5) years in the California state prison system. The defendant was found guilty on nine (9) felony counts ranging from forgery, grand theft, filing of false instruments, and a grand theft enhancement, which were...
Action Taken Against Crooked Lawyers for Various Scams
The State Bar of California has taken action against 5 more lawyers under investigation for loan modification misconduct, bringing to 14 the number of attorneys who have resigned or been placed on involuntary inactive enrollment since creation of the bar's Loan Modification Task Force in April 2009.
Martin Quoc Pham, 28, Garden Grove, California, has been sentenced to 132 months in federal prison for orchestrating two identity theft schemes in which he obtained personal information from hundreds of consumers and used the data in an attempt to fraudulently obtain approximately $1.5 million from home equity lines of credit (HELOCs) and credit...
Man Sentenced for Stealing Identities From Mortgage Files
Visanio Eugene Vann, 47, Thousand Oaks, California, was sentenced by United States District Judge S. James Otero in Los Angeles to 95 months in federal prison for orchestrating an identity theft scheme in which he used personal identifying information taken from dozens of mortgage and credit files to fraudulently obtain credit cards that were...
2 Arrested For Fraud Involving Investment and Loan Modification Scams
Alan Espiritu, 35, and Cesar Moreno, 40, were both arrested by Carlsbad Police at their California residences on November 3, 2009. The two men are believed to be responsible for a real estate investment fraud scheme dating back to as early as 2001.
Espiritu and Moreno targeted non-English speaking Hispanics. They told victims that their company,...
Jury Convicts Deed Forger in Real Estate Fraud Case
Oralia Hidalgo, 46, Colton, California, was found guilty by a jury of 9 felony counts ranging from forgery, grand theft, filing of false instruments, and a grand theft enhancement.
In July 2003, Hidalgo forged the victim's name on a Grant Deed illegally taking title to a residence in Colton, California. She encumbered the property by taking a...
Dallas' Mortgage Fraud Clusted in 75201 ZIP Code, Study Finds Dallas Morning News
Dallas' 75201 ZIP code includes the snazzy Arts District, some of the city's tallest skyscrapers and a chunk of fashionable Uptown...The area is also ground zero for North Texas mortgage fraud.
Cracking Down on Mortgage Fraud San Diego Union Tribune
...federal prosecutors say the business was the center of a mortgage fraud scheme that churned out scores of bogus W-2 forms, fake pay stubs and false tax records for a network of almost two dozen real estate agents and loan officers.
President of Mortgage Brokerage Firm Guilty in $23 Million Scam New York Daily News
Ramnauth, 54, of Levittown, L.I., and his cohorts in the scheme collected massive fees from inflated mortgages by using "straw buyers" who flipped the homes again and again.
Mortgage Fraud Enabled The Spokesman Review
The massive mortgage fraud that occurred between 1999 and 2008 was publicly known by 2002.
Woman Sentenced In Mortgage Fraud Scheme Citizens Voice
A woman was sentenced to 18 months in federal prison for her role in a Luzerne County mortgage fraud scheme five years ago...
Thursday, February 18, 2010 F. Jeffrey Miller Trial Continued Testimony
As reported by Anne Mitchell, who viewed the trial:
Angela Parenza worked for Jeff Miller as the office manager for 7 or 8 years beginning in 1998. Parenza was indicted along with Miller and pled guilty to conspiracy to commit bank fraud and money laundering. Parenza testified that Miller or his contractors allegedly preferred to build all the...
Wednesday, February 10, 2010 F. Jeffrey Miller Trial Coverage Continued - Witness Testimony
Steve Middleton Testimony - Coverage Provided by Anne Mitchell
The Government continued in its cross examination of Steve Middleton. He was shown several HUD-1 statements involving sales of homes located in Overland Park, KS, and Olathe, KS. The HUD statements each allegedly showed line items of payments to (James) Moser & Associates, LLC's...
Monday, February 01, 2010 F. Jeffrey Miller Trial Coverage - Continued Witness Examination
According to Anne Mitchell, who is present in court for the trial:
Next Witness: Kelly Sanford
Kelly Sanford of the Federal Reserve was a short witness for the Government. Sanford manages electronic payments between banks and member financial institutions. He was shown copies of wire transfers and asked whether they coincided with the counts in...
Wednesday, January 27, 2010 F. Jeffrey Miller Trial - Prosecution Witnesses Continued
According to Anne Mitchell, who is viewing the trial:
January 13, 2010
Witness: Rick Hayes
Rick Hayes testified that on the day that he closed on his Miller Enterprise home, he received a phone call from the Kansas Banking Commission informing him that his loan was fraudulent. After the Hayes responded to a classified ad, they met with John...
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The information and notices contained on Mortgage Fraud Blog are intended to summarize recent developments in mortgage fraud cases and mortgage banking matters nationwide. The posts on this site are presented as general research and information and are expressly not intended, and should not be regarded, as legal advice. Much of the information on this site concerns allegations made in civil lawsuits and in criminal indictments. All persons are presumed innocent until convicted of a crime. Readers who have particular questions about mortgage banking, mortgage fraud matters or who believe they require legal counsel should seek the advice of an attorney. The creators, editors and sponsors of Mortgage Fraud Blog do not intend to create a confidential relationship or an attorney-client relationship by communication via or arising from this site.
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 
