Man Indicted for Down Payment Fraud

Allison Tussey —  January 11, 2013 — Leave a comment

Richard Nobles, Granville, Ohio, was indicted by a federal grand jury and charged with conspiracy to commit bank fraud, bank fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and money laundering for his role in a $2.5 million mortgage fraud scheme.

According to the indictment, Nobles owned and operated a real estate business called Home Team Solutions Ltd., he owned and controlled a real estate business called Zircon Funding Ltd., and had control over a business called Noble Presence Farm, LLC.

Between January 2006 and February 2008, Nobles allegedly conspired with others to defraud Washington Mutual Bank and Fifth Third Bank in order to obtain mortgage loans by false and fraudulent pretenses.

Nobles, through his various companies, including Home Team, Zircon and Noble Presence Farms, purchased approximately nine properties in the Columbus, Ohio area. Many of these homes were in the area located south of German Village, in Columbus Ohio, near higher priced homes. Nobles used various mortgage brokers in the Columbus area to assist in selling the homes. The homes were flipped within months of Nobles purchasing the properties.

According to the charges, Nobles assured the mortgage brokers, as a term of the sale, he would provide the necessary down payments for the new buyers, since most of the investors did not have the funds to pay the required down payments. Fraudulent loan application were submitted to the lenders in order to qualify the borrowers for the mortgage loans.  Nobles allegedly understood that the Settlement Statements for each property sale were false since they failed to disclose the true source of the down payments.

Nobles further arranged for over-inflated sale prices of the homes from the actual market price in order to generate the funds to provide the down payments and to generate a substantial profit for himself.

The Indictment was filed in US District Court on Janury 8, 2013.

Allison Tussey

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