Thursday, June 28, 2007

Another Defendant Pleads Guilty in Notorious Mortgage Fraud Case

Michael Rodd, 53, a real estate agent doing business as Heartland of America, Inc., Olathe, Kansas, plead guilty to conspiracy for his role in a mortgage fraud scheme most notably known to include the sale of former Jackson County, Missouri, Executive Katheryn Shields‘ house.  By entering into the plea agreement, Rodd admits that he knowingly committed the offense, and is in fact guilty of the offense.  The parties agreed that the facts constituting the offense are as follows:

Beginning about early September 2006, and continuing through on or about November 17, 2006, Kansas City, Missouri, and elsewhere, defendant Rodd combined and conspired with codefendants Zwego, Cardarella, Shields, Barshaw, Thompson-Barshaw, Kinman, Peterson, Plagman, Coleman, and Rhoades, and others to obtain money from Fieldstone Mortgage Corp., and other mortgage lenders, and from Freedom Title Company, and to retain the money obtained, by means of material false and fraudulent pretenses, representations and promises, and by the concealment of material facts, and in the execution of the said scheme to commit offenses against the United States, that is, to knowingly and willfully transmit and cause to be transmitted in interstate commerce, wire communications, that is, communications by facsimile communications and electronic mail, in furtherance of and for the purpose of executing a scheme to defraud.

As part of the scheme the co-conspirators did the following:

1. Identified and selected the property at 5034 Sunset Drive, Kansas City, Missouri, for purchase at an inflated price in order to obtain loan proceeds in excess of the actual sale price;

2. Agreed to sell the property at 5034 Sunset Drive, Kansas City, Missouri, falsely representing to the mortgage lender that the stated sale price was greater than the actual sale price;

3. Agreed to purchase and obtain loans to purchase the property at 5034 Sunset Drive, Kansas City, Missouri, in excess of its listed sale price by material false and fraudulent representations and promises, and omissions of facts;

4. Prepared and caused to be prepared false and fraudulent loan applications and supporting documentation for submission to Fieldstone Mortgage, making material false and fraudulent representations and omissions of fact therein;

5. Submitted and caused to be submitted the false and fraudulent loan applications and supporting documentation to Fieldstone Mortgage;

6. Obtained and submitted to Fieldstone Mortgage inflated appraisals for the property at 5034 Sunset Drive, Kansas City, Missouri;

7. Prepared and submitted false documentation to Fieldstone Mortgage for the difference between the actual sales price and the inflated price;

8. Caused Fieldstone Mortgage to conditionally approve the said loan applications in reliance on the material false and fraudulent representations and omissions of fact;

9. Prepared and submitted to Fieldstone Mortgage false documentation for closing on the loans; and

10. Attempted to obtain personal financial and other benefit as a result of the scheme.

mortgage fraud