Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Texas Real Estate Investor Sentenced for Fraud
Vernon Cooks, Jr., a/k/a Jibreel Rashad, 40, was sentenced to 135 months in federal prison for operating a mortgage fraud scheme in the Dallas, Texas area. In addition, at the sentencing hearing, U.S. District Judge Sam A. Lindsay ordered that Cooks pay approximately $1.4 million restitution. Cooks is also presently under indictment in the Northern District of Texas in United States v. Donald W. Hill et al., Case Number 3:07CR-289, and is presently in federal custody on those charges. At the hearing, District Court Judge Lindsay noted that he would consider setting a Bureau of Prisons reporting date for Cooks if he posted bond in the other case .
As previously reported by Mortgage Fraud Blog, Cooks was convicted of one count of bank fraud, seven counts of wire fraud, and six counts of money laundering. One other co-defendant, Abdul Rahman Karriem, who was involved in the same scheme has pled guilty. Co-defendant Deirdre Dione Anderson, who was charged with six counts of wire fraud, was acquitted.
At trial, the government presented evidence that Cooks, who represented himself as a real estate investor and owner of ”Rashad Investment Group,” knowingly created a scheme to defraud mortgage lenders out of hundreds of thousands of dollars. Cooks used straw purchasers to buy single-family homes in the Dallas area for amounts far above fair market value. Straw purchasers testified that Cooks paid them to use their names and credit to purchase homes that Cooks was going to rent to others. Cooks told the straw purchasers he would pay all closing costs, mortgage payments and taxes associated with the properties until he transferred the properties out of their names within six months to a year after closing.
To support the inflated sales prices of the homes, Cooks used fraudulent appraisals. He also caused fraudulent loan applications and other supporting documents, including fraudulent tax returns, W2s, and employment, rent and deposit verifications, to be submitted to the mortgage lenders so that the straw borrowers would qualify for the inflated loans. Once the lenders funded the loans, Cooks used the fraudulently-obtained proceeds to pay off the original, bona-fide sellers and kept the remaining funds for himself. Cooks then allowed the mortgage loans to default in the straw purchasers’ names.
mortgage fraud
I think Jibreel was also indicted in what the feds are calling a massive conspiracy involving several Dallas City Council members and others including a local well known developer (and his wife and father) to steer low-income tax credit apartment approvals to one developer. The were investitaged by feds for several years and the indictments were very recently announced. More details can be found at www.dallasnews.com (Dallas Morning News) if you want to follow it.
Posted by on 10/24 at 03:43 AM
I just discovered your blog and was happy to see that you post about fraud schemes all over the place. Thanks for not keeping it local to your own area.
Posted by on 10/25 at 07:26 AM
Post a Comment
The trackback URL for this entry is:
Trackbacks:
|
|
|
Trial coverage provided by Anne Mitchell, Crazy Fish Realty.
F. Jeffrey Miller Update - October 20, 2009
A hearing was held in Topeka, Kansas in front of Judge Julie Robinson. Miller is currently being held pending his sentencing which is set for December 22nd, 2009 at 9:00 a.m.. Steve Vanatta and Hallie Irvin, Miller's codefendants, will be sentenced at that time also.
Several motions were heard this week. One was a motion for Miller to be released pending his sentencing. Miller's attorney, Jeff Morris, argued that the court had dismmissed with predjudice the matter involving Miller's purchase of a commercial lawnmower, violating the court ordered monitoring agreement. He also argued that Miller was not a flight risk and should be released. This motion was denied.
Another motion heard by Judge Robinson was that of an escrow account containing proceeds from the sale of Miller's forfeited assets. This account has a balance of $143,000. Attorney Morris argued that his firm was due $100,000 for work done in the Miller matter, to date. The government argued that his 'un-itemized fees' were 'exhorbitant'. The balance of the funds, Morris argued, should be released to the Miller family to help pay for mounting household expenses.
The government argued that the 'Asset Forfeiture Provision' applies down to 'the last penny' and that 'the rights of the victims to made whole are of paramount immportance' and that no routine household expenses like Visa bills, are allowed.
Attorney Morris argues that there is more than enough assets to satisfy the jury's judgement of $2.65 million dollars. The government argues that the estimated value of his assets are only $1.4 million.
The government also stated that Miller has been paid dividends from a company Miller has an ownership interest in; Boreflex. From July, 2008 to present, Miller has been paid $330,509.30 from Boreflex, unbeknownst to the court appointed monitor.
Present in the courtroom was Todd Earnshaw. Earnshaw was indicted along with Miller and others in what is commonly referred to as 'Miller I'. That trial is scheduled to begin on January 11, 2010 in Topeka, Kansas.
More Trial Coverage
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
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 
