Dianna F. Woods, 59, Citrus Heights, California, was found guilty after a four–day trial, a federal jury found day of four counts of making false statements on loan applications.
According to evidence presented at trial, Woods was a licensed real estate salesperson who worked at a company called VLD Realty, doing business as Trade House USA, in the Sacramento, California, area. VLD built and sold houses in residential developments in Sacramento, Carmichael, and Copperopolis, California. As the housing market began to weaken from 2006 through 2008, VLD sought to sell the houses by offering incentives to buyers. VLD offered to pay the down payment or offered to give the buyers money after the sale, neither of which was disclosed to the lenders. For her part, Woods purchased two houses based on the undisclosed kickbacks. Further, for the purpose of obtaining loans to purchase the properties, Woods signed and submitted loan applications and other documents that contained false statements as to Woods’s income, employment, assets, the purpose of the property, the sales price, and whether the down payment was borrowed. Woods also assisted another buyer in making false statements to the lenders to get loans for the purchase of two properties in the housing developments and falsely verified his employment.
To date, six other defendants have been found guilty or have pleaded guilty in three related cases.
Woods is scheduled to be sentenced by United States District Judge William B. Shubb on February 27, 2017. Woods faces a maximum statutory penalty of 30 years in prison and a $1 million fine on each count.
The verdict was announced United States Attorney Phillip A. Talbert. This case is the product of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation. Assistant United States Attorneys Shelley Weger and Todd Pickles are prosecuting the case.
It’s too bad that these things are still happening… Most of the bad seeds have been weeded out with all the regulations.
It’s a horrible thing, but I hope that they make an example out of this agent. I’m not located too far from where this happened being in the Walnut Creek area of Northern CA.
I’m always surprised when real estate agents feel like they can get away this this type of fraud these days. Glad she was caught. Loan fraud is no joke and it gives the industry a bad name when it occurs.