Joel Wilson, 31, Saginaw, Michigan, has been arrested for his alleged role in an extensive Michigan Ponzi scheme. the defendant allegedly defrauded at least three Michigan victims out of hundreds of thousands of dollars and has been on the lam in Europe for more than a year.
Martin Sacci, 65, South Plainfield, New Jersey, was charged with making false statements and representations in connection with a Federal Housing Administration (FHA) insured mortgage with intent to defraud the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Michele Carducci, 37, Tampa, Florida, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud affecting a financial institution and making false statements to a federal agency.
David Foley, 48, Los Gatos, California, was sentenced to two years in prison and ordered to pay a $5,000 fine for engaging in a conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, and conspiracy to commit bank fraud.
Kathryn Sylvester, San Diego, California, pleaded guilty to participating in a mortgage fraud conspiracy in which she and several co-conspirators caused more than $6 million in losses associated with various properties in San Diego County and elsewhere.
Kamalu Gonzales, 47, Henderson, Nevada, a former loan officer who convinced at least 16 victims to give him money for a high yield investment scheme involving the foreign currency exchange market, was sentenced to 6½ years in prison, five years of supervised release, and ordered to pay over $830,000 in restitution for his guilty pleas to federal fraud and money laundering charges.
11 companies and five individuals have been charged with running an illegal mortgage relief scheme, which operated under various names.
Kil Seok (“Michael”) Seo, 49, formerly of Fairfax, Virginia, pleaded guilty to bank fraud and aggravated identity theft charges in connection with his involvement in a mortgage fraud scheme.
Jennifer McTigue, 46, and Sakara Blackwell, a/k/a: Dawn Sakaguchi, 38, both of Honolulu, Hawaii, were arraigned in United States District Court after a federal grand jury returned a forty-five (45) count indictment against them and Marc Melton, 43, for fraud, money laundering and other offenses relating to a debt elimination scheme to defraud lending institutions, buyers of real property and escrow companies through a process of filing fraudulent mortgage release documents with the Hawaii Bureau of Conveyances.
Lawrence Allen Wright, 46, Niceville, Florida, was sentenced to 75 months in federal prison and ordered to pay more than $3.7 million in restitution.