Monday, August 29, 2005

Cyber Sex Charges Against Lawyer Accused in Mortgage Fraud

Kabas Accused of Corresponding with Apparent Child

On January 25, 2005, Jan Kabas, 53, attorney, Jericho, New York was indicted on charges of conspiracy to commit bank fraud and bank fraud in connection with allegations that he and his co-conspirators obtained double funds from a warehouse lender and third party investors to fund the same mortgage loans and also obtain refinance loans against properties without the knowledge or consent of the property owners. 

Kabas was released after posting a $50,000 bond and plead not guilty to the charges on February 4, 2005.  He is scheduled for trial on September 12, 2005.

On August 24, 2005, according to court documents, Kabas was arrested by Nassau County, New York law enforcement and charged with two counts of Attempted Disseminating of Indecent Material to Minors.

According to authorities, the Nassau charges arise from allegations that Kabas had sexually explicit conversations with a person who he believed was a 13 year old female. In addition, Kabas is accused of agreeing to meet the ‘13 year old female’ for the purposes of engaging in sexual activity.

According to the Nassau County District Attorney, Denis Dillon ”Kabas, while using the AOL screen name ‘Specimen29’, visited chatrooms where he encountered an undercover investigator from the Long Island Chapter of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (LISPCC) who was acting in an undercover capacity as a 13-year-old female. During July and August of this year, Kabas engaged in multiple sexually explicit conversations with this undercover investigator. During the course of the last month and a half, Kabas sent a photograph of himself to the undercover investigator, inquired about the undercover’s sexual experiences, requested a picture of the undercover, and spoke about sexual acts he wanted to perform with the undercover. ”

“At least one of the sexually explicit conversations that Kabas had with the undercover were done from his Jericho law office,” Dillon continued. ”Kabas, who ran his own law practice, was observed by one of my Investigators sitting at his office computer having one of the sexually explicit conversations with the undercover. Kabas who was pressing to meet the ‘13 year old female’ arranged to meet the undercover at 11:00 a.m. on August 24th at an undisclosed location. Kabas did not show up to the morning meeting but then notified the undercover that he was delayed in court and that he would meet ‘her’ at 3:00p.m. that same day. Kabas arrived at the meet location at 3:00p.m. in his Jaguar S Type vehicle, where he was apprehended by my investigators.”

In the federal action, the government filed a motion for arrest warrant on August 24, 2005, asserting that Kabas had violated the conditions of his release and on August 25, 2005, Kabas was formally ordered detained pending trial on the federal conspiracy and bank fraud charges. 

According to the federal indictment handed down in January, Mortgage Plus Equity and Loan Corporation, a mortgage banker, maintained a warehouse line with Provident Financial.  In February 1998, Mortgage Plus began to experience cash flow problems. 

Kabas, along with unnamed co-conspirators, represented to third party investors that Mortgage Plus (rather than Provident) funded mortgage closings. Those misrepresentations resulted in transactions double funding as Mortgage Plus would obtain loan funds for closings both from Provident and from third part investors for the same mortgage loans.  Mortgage Plus would then use the proceeds of the double funded closings to pay its own debts and operating expenses. As the debts of Mortgage Plus continued to grow, beginning in 1999, Kabas and his co-conspirators began to refinance existing mortgage loans without the knowledge or consent of the homeowners.  They submitted a series of fraudulent loan applications and used the proceeds to pay the debts and operating expenses of Mortgage Plus. False refinance loans were obtained on, among other properties, 144 Foxwood Drive, Jericho, New York and 49 Irving Drive, Woodbury, New York.

mortgage fraud