Donald Kohut, Jr, 34, Raritan Township, New Jersey, has been indicted for 2nd degree Theft by Deception, 3rd degree Uttering a Forged Instrument, 3rd degree Forgery, and 4th degree False Public Records.
Kohut had purchased a home located at 1001 Weatherburn Court, Flemington, New Jersey by securing a mortgage on the property. An investigation by the New Jersey Department of Banking and Insurance and the Hunterdon County Prosecutor’s Office Major Crimes Unit, discovered that Kohut created a false mortgage discharge document. That false document was notarized and submitted to the Hunterdon County Clerk’s Office. The document, which falsely purported to show that the mortgage was paid off, enabled Kohut’s theft scheme.
A few months later, Kohut secured another mortgage on the property for $115,000. The mortgage company believed that they were the first and only lien holder on the property. The suspect paid both unwitting mortgage companies. Kohut eventually missed a mortgage payment and the first lender began to examine the possibility of a mortgage modification for the defendant. This examination uncovered defendant’s mortgage fraud. The lender immediately reported this matter to authorities, who promptly started an investigation.
Mr. Kohut was also arrested in March for plotting to break the nation’s youngest female death row inmate, Christa Gail Pike, from a Tennessee prison.
Hunterdon County Prosecutor Anthony P. Kearns, III made the announcement.
Prosecutor Kearns commended the investigation by the prosecutor’s office’s Major Crimes Unit. “These detectives worked tirelessly to uncover and examine this complex financial fraud,” stated the Prosecutor. Kearns noted, “In the wake of massive financial frauds, the Hunterdon County Prosecutor’s Office will continue to combat the epidemic of mortgage fraud that has swept the State of New Jersey.”
The indictment is merely an accusation that the defendant has committed a crime. Kohut is presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
