Tuesday, January 15, 2008

5 Convicted Fraudsters Unsuccessfully Appeal

Fernando Jimenez, Ana Martell, Kathy Giunta, Luis Nieves, and Rene Abreu (the Appellants) were each convicted of one or more counts of a 47-count superceding indictment stemming from eight related conspiracies involving mortgage fraud and bank fraud. The trial lasted 3.5 months.  The Appellants each appealed their convictions and sentences in a consolidated appeal on several grounds. The Appellate Court affirmed the convictions of all five Appellants.

After a jury verdict, the Appellate Court reviews the facts in the light most favorable to the verdict. As previously reported by Mortgage Fraud Blog, Rene Abreu owned and/or controlled several companies related to the real estate industry. Mortgage Pros, Inc. was a mortgage brokerage company that secured residential and commercial loans from financial institutions for clients attempting to buy a house or commercial property; Abreu Real Estate was a realty company; and RLA Homes, Inc. managed the development, construction, and sale of realty.

Fernando Jimenez and Kathy Giunta worked for Mortgage Pros as loan processors. Ana Martell was the bookkeeper for Mortgage Pros as well as for other of Abreu‘s companies. Many of Mortgage Pros‘ customers lacked sufficient income, assets, or employment history to qualify for a residential mortgage. When customers failed to qualify for a mortgage, Martell, at Abreu‘s direction, fabricated federal tax returns, inflated the income listed on existing W-2 forms, or provided false pay stubs for the customer. Martell, Jimenez, and Giunta each participated in completing false forms needed to qualify the customer for a mortgage, including Verification of Employment (VOE) forms, HUD-1 settlement statements, and sales contracts. Mortgage Pros charged and received a fee, generally paid in cash, in exchange for providing the false documents. The creation of false documents was common knowledge among the Mortgage Pros employees, many of whom assisted on occasion in destroying records at Abreu‘s direction.

Some of Mortgage Pros‘ customers, who relied on the false documentation to obtain a mortgage they could not afford, eventually defaulted on their mortgages and lost their homes, resulting in losses to the lenders as well. The indictment charged Abreu, Martell, Jimenez, and Giunta with conspiring to commit, and committing, mail fraud for submitting via the mail false loan applications related to the residential mortgage loan fraud scheme, which occurred between November 1992 and July 1997. They each were convicted by the jury of the conspiracy charge. Various members of the conspiracy were charged with numerous substantive mail fraud counts based on particular loan files. The jury returned convictions on most of the substantive counts, but acquitted on some of those counts.

The commercial mortgage fraud conspiracy operated in a manner similar to the residential mortgage fraud conspiracy and allegedly involved Abreu, Martell, Giunta, and Luis Nieves, who was a senior vice-president in the commercial loan department at Hudson United Bank (HUB). Nieves managed Abreu‘s commercial accounts at HUB. Abreu, Martell, and Giunta submitted commercial loan applications containing false and forged information for Mortgage Pros‘ commercial customers as well as for Abreu‘s own companies. Nieves approved the commercial loan applications, allegedly acting with the knowledge that the documentation contained false information. The jury convicted Abreu, Martell, and Giunta of the conspiracy and the substantive mail fraud charges related to the commercial loan conspiracy but acquitted Nieves of those charges.

mortgage fraud

1. Hello - To Whom it may concern
   As our nation got a defraud to lenders or connection to Bankers to get money in legal ways. There are a lot victims in Nation too. They needed to have some helps . There is somehow we can have a group in this web that allow all VICTIMS can contact You , they can declare what happended to them or relate what Fraudulants people trapped them to involving in their Scams. I wish You and people who concern about this problem, please open a link and a group people who welcome to help OTHERs’ Victims. ....about Real Estate Defraud.
   Thank You so much

   Posted by  on  01/15  at  03:18 PM