Johnny Eugene Grivette Jr., 39, Magalia, California, was sentenced by United States District Court Judge John A. Mendez to four and a half years in prison for his participation in a mortgage fraud scheme involving straw buyers and the payment of commissions to appraisers who would artificially inflate values.
Julie Dianne Farmer, 45, Bakersfield, California, was convicted by a federal jury finding her guilty of conspiracy to commit mail fraud, wire fraud and bank fraud, and two counts each of mail fraud and wire fraud. The charges stem from her involvement in an extensive straw buyer scheme that ran from January 2004 to September 2007.
Nsane Phanuel Ligate, 42, Ashburn, Virginia, a real estate agent, pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit wire fraud in connection with a mortgage scheme involving the purchase of two properties located on North Patterson Park Avenue, Baltimore, Maryland. Co-defendant Cane Mwihava, 43, Bowie, Maryland, pleaded guilty to the same offense.
Emiel A. Kandi, 37, University Place, Washington, a former hard money lender, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to submit false statements in loan applications and make false statements to the Department of Housing and Urban Development and to submitting false statements in loan applications.
Andrew Constantinou, 57, Unionville, Connecticut, and Jacques Kelly, 48, Poughkeepsie, New York, were convicted by a federal jury for their roles in an extensive mortgage fraud scheme arising from the fraudulent purchases of more than 40 properties in New Haven. The defendants conspired to defraud mortgage lenders of millions of dollars of mortgage proceeds by inflating the contract price that the sellers of the properties had actually agreed to accept…
Alejandro Matos, 43, Riverview, Florida, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire, mail, and bank fraud for his role in assisting in the preparation and submission of loan applications that included numerous false and fraudulent representations relating to employment and income
John Thomas, 51, Chicago, Illinois, a real estate developer, was arrested on federal charges alleging that he defrauded the south suburban Village of Riverdale of funds provided for the redevelopment of the now closed Riverdale Marina. The defendant allegedly fraudulently obtained approximately $370,000 for himself from $900,000 in financing.
Randy Alan Carpenter, 56, Spruce Pine, North Carolina, an attorney, engineer and land surveyor, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Graham Mullen to 27 months in prison for making false statements on his tax returns.
Eliyahu Weinstein, 38, Lakewood, New Jersey, who was sentenced less than two months ago to 22 years in prison for running a Ponzi-style real estate scheme, was indicted by a federal grand jury on new charges of conspiracy, wire fraud, and transacting criminal proceeds while on pretrial release.
Regina M. Preetorius, 47, Augusta, Georgia was sentenced to 280 months in prison by U.S. District Court Judge J. Randal Hall for her role in a multi-million-dollar investor fraud scheme.