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.
Appraiser Pleads Guilty in New Jersey Affordable Homes Mortgage Fraud Case
Michael Meehan, 47, Bellmar, New Jersey, pleaded guilty to a one-count Information which charges him with conspiracy to commit wire fraud for creating and submitting to various mortgage lenders materially false and misleading property appraisals in the names of nominee buyers.
Meehan is the fourth defendant associated with N.J. Affordable Homes, Inc. (NJAH) to plead guilty in connection with the mortgage fraud scheme. NJAH, Perth Amboy, New Jersey, purported to be in the real estate financing and investment business. The company first came under scrutiny of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, which obtained a restraining order against the company in September 2005. NJAH subsequently was ordered into receivership and then bankruptcy by a federal judge.
At his plea hearing, Meehan admitted that from March 2003 through September 2005, at the direction of NJAH’s appraisal coordinator, he participated in a conspiracy to defraud various mortgage lenders by submitting materially false and misleading property appraisals. The appraisals materially overstated the value of the properties and falsely claimed that the properties had substantial improvements, such as new windows, bathrooms, siding and plumbing and electric systems, Meehan admitted.
In many cases, Meehan did not even visit the properties in question, he admitted. For example, in one appraisal Meehan stated the property had numerous improvements, which included two new bathrooms, a new kitchen and new exterior doors, windows, decking, and stairs. Meehan admitted that the property in fact was and remains vacant land.
In January 2007, Meehan’s co-conspirator Katrina Arrington, 34, Hillsdale, New Jersey, pleaded guilty to her role in the conspiracy. In October 2006, co-conspirators John Kurzel, 55, New Brunswick, New Jersey, and Lucesita Santiago, 37, Woodbridge, New Jersey, also pleaded guilty to the same conspiracy charge to which Meehan pleaded guilty. Arrington, Kurzel and Santiago each admitted that total losses to mortgage lenders exceeded $7 million. Those defendants await sentencing.
The charges to which Meehan and his co-defendants pleaded guilty carry a statutory maximum penalty of five years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000, or twice the aggregate loss to any victim or aggregate gain to the defendants.
Why is it taking so long to indict Wayne Puff? The Pinnacle ponzi scheme went into receivership just a few months ago and the guy has already been indicted.
But the even bigger criminal in this case is the Trustee, who has been (a) filing suits against all the cash investors to recover whatever limited payments they did receive and (b) blocking the property investors from selling the properties, so that they have been racking up interest charges and legal fees for a year and a half. All while the market is tanking.
Posted by on 03/15 at 05:31 PM
want to know more about wayne puff’s trial --- where ?? when will he be tried;
Posted by on 02/18 at 05:59 AM
wayne
you are a good man
stop taking dvantage of the weak
it will catch up with you(as it has)
call me if you choose
roland(jr)
Posted by on 06/25 at 06:20 PM
how dare you say Wayne is a good man???? Yeah he’s such a good man that my husband and I are bankrupt!!! and it had nothing to do with this mortgage scam!! He worked for Rosalinda homes and took $70,0000 of our money and ran off with our money!!! I hope he spend the rest of his miserable life in jail!!!!!!!!!
Posted by on 06/26 at 01:19 PM
What has happened to the criminal case in which the Trustee named the investors individually as defendants?
Posted by on 02/10 at 12:21 PM
New to the State, I purchased a new home. My realtor obtained a home appraisal, which the bank required as well. I listed my home due to employment relocation. To my surprise, I found out the home I purchased is legally a 2BR even though the appraisal used to purchase the home appraised the home as a 3BR and used 3 & 4 BR comps. This inflated the value of the home when I purchased it however, now to sell the home as a 2BR significantly reduces the value. Is this consumer fraud?
Posted by on 03/08 at 04:06 AM
Wayne Puff is a good man, yes he made some horrible choices, but he is paying for those choices he made. He is going to be doing more time then people who commit murder and rape children. I am sorry for all who fell claim to the bad choices he made. but let me tell you that their were hundreds of people who put their hands out and he helped them. His friends always came first in his life and if they needed something he helped out. I know he hurt a lot of people and I pray that all those families can recover in some way. Wayne was sentenced, he will be in prison, his friends gone, and his family far away. Hopefully he will get out before he dies and if you would wish anything else on him. Then maybe you are the ones who need to make good with God and be prayed for.
Posted by on 01/17 at 01:07 PM
I knew Wayne Puff thru our mutual enjoyment of dancing. We met either at the now defunct Yellow Rose in Manville, NJ or the Colorado Café in Watchung, NJ.
Wayne was an avid swing dancer & enjoyed spinning his dance partners around, sending them thru his legs & flipping them over his shoulders & head, in the air…he was a real showman & very entertaining to watch & always attracted a crowd. Oh, yes, he was a big man (as in tall & heavy) & his dance partners were small & petite. He liked to dance at the Windows on the World Restaurant on the top floor of one of the World Trade Center Towers & later outdoors at Lincoln Center. When Wayne was banned from flipping dance partners at the Café (for safety reasons), he bought into the business, becoming majority owner & of course, resumed flipping girls on the dance floor. Wayne also had a rental property in Belmar, NJ, located a couple of houses from Ocean Ave. Wayne always had a young, foreign dance partner / girlfriend at his side. Rumor was that he sponsored these girls to come to the U.S. and they returned the favor by being his girlfriend/partner/escort. One night at the Yellow Rose dance hall, Wayne decided to show off his dancing skills by demonstrating a dance competition called Jack & Jack, where two guys swing dance with each other. It is a difficult dance to do because one of the guys has to assume the task of being the follower, which is normally that of the female dance partner. We’ll the owner of the Yellow Rose did not know what was going on & thought that Wayne & his dance partner were homosexual & he threw them out. LOL. I am disturbed that Wayne let greed rule his life and that he is responsible for bilking so many people out of their hard earned money. He certainly had a lot of balls to perpetrate his crimes. Wayne Puff became the Bernie Madoff of real estate in NJ. What a shame. I gotta find out where Wayne is serving time & pay him a visit in the slammer so we can reminisce about the good old days & better times.
Posted by on 01/18 at 06:57 AM
How can anyone say that Wayne is a good man??? After everything he did to all of these families, not only through his mortgage fraud but also through a construction company called Rosalinda homes. I’m sorry to say this but I can only hope and pray that Wayne Puff dies in that prision cell!!! My husband and I will never get any of our money back as so he left us in a $120,000 hole. Does anyone care about that?? Or that poor gentlemen whose 81 years old mowing laws because Wayne took all of his money! I have no sympathy for him or his family. May he rotttttttt in his prision cell!!!
Posted by on 01/18 at 12:49 PM
Mrs. Wieczorkiewicz, Lets see he will be well fed, have great medical coverage, and be in a non-stressful federal prison. Who do you think will live longer?? Remember God looks after his believers.
Posted by on 01/19 at 11:10 AM
Wayne’s wife lef the country with money; isn’t there a way of recovering that money? How will he repay $101 million dollars from prision?
Failed Mortgage Firm Trustee Allowed $50,000 in Fees Union Leader
U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge J. Michael Deasy will approve $50,000 in legal fees for the trustee of failed mortgage brokerage businesses Financial Resources Mortgage Inc. and CL&M Inc.
Bend Oregon Event to Help Homeowners Prevent Foreclosures Oregon.Gov
As part of an ongoing effort to help homeowners avoid foreclosure, state agencies are organizing a foreclosure-prevention event in Bend on Saturday, March 27, 2010.
Shelbyville Man Gets 2-Year Sentence For Loan Fraud Chattanoogan.Com
Prosecutor Gary Humble said the lost was approximately $2.3 million in the mortgage fraud involving hundreds of homes in the Shelbyville area.
Lend America, VP Ashley Banned from FHA Housing Wire
Michael Ashley, the embattled former vice president of Federal Housing Administration (FHA)-backed mortgage originator Lend America, and the company he worked for, were permanently banned from doing business in the industry last week.
Countrywide Tries to Pin Blame on Insurer Court House News
Countrywide Home Loans demands $111 million from Triad Guaranty Insurance, claiming Triad is trying to blame mortgage lenders for the insurer's role in the housing bubble and collapse.
Investors Say They Were Swindled in Property Scheme Fox 13 Now
Utah Division of Consumer Protection is joining forces with a few investors who claim they have been cheated by an agency called "Utah Mini Ranches.
Greenfield Man Accused of Housing Scam The Republic
A former real estate agent conned at least eight people by renting them properties actually owned by a federal agency and then running off with their deposits, prosecutors said.
Appraisal Institute Opposes Obama Administration's Plan for Homeowner 'Short Sales' PR News Wire
Citing concerns about increased mortgage fraud, four organizations representing more than 35,000 real estate appraisers today voiced their opposition to changes to an Obama administration program that will encourage "short sales" of homes.
Ownership Rights to Get Another Look TBO.Com
State lawmakers may beef up protections of property owners' rights by rewriting a law this spring that is at the center of a case of alleged fraud in Pasco County.
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...
Legal Disclaimer.
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 
mortgage fraud
