Edgar Galdamez, 37, Rockville, Maryland, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Peter J. Messitt to 18 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, for wire fraud in connection with a mortgage fraud scheme.
Judge Messitte entered an order that Galdamez pay $515,000 in restitution and forfeiture, the amount of loss resulting from the scheme.
According to his plea, from at least September 2006 through May 2007, Galdamez and others contacted individuals who wished to purchase homes as investment properties. Galdamez and others prepared and submitted false loan applications in the buyers’ names to the lending institution to qualify these individuals for loans that they otherwise were unqualified to obtain. For instance, they typically inflated the buyer’s income and omitted liabilities. They also falsely stated that the purpose of the property was to be the borrowers’ primary residences in order to receive a lower interest rate. Galdamez knew that the property was intended to be used as an investment property.
These residential mortgages were destined to fail because the borrowers did not have the income or assets to make the necessary mortgage payments. Galdamez and others profited from these fraudulent transactions by collecting origination fees, commissions, and brokers’ fees from each loan that closed.
As a result of the fraud scheme, the lender lost $515,000.
The sentence was announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein and Special Agent in Charge Stephen E. Vogt of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
United States Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein commended the FBI for its work in the investigation and thanked Assistant U.S. Attorney Sujit Raman, who prosecuted the case.
