Brandon Barber, 37, New York, and his four co-defendants, appeared in United States District Court for arraignment on various charges of bank fraud, bankruptcy fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering stemming from schemes to defraud involving several Northwest Arkansas real estate transactions and Barber’s bankruptcy case.
Mohammed Rezaian, Novato, California, a real estate investor, has agreed to plead guilty for his role in conspiracies to rig bids and commit mail fraud at public real estate foreclosure auctions in Northern California.
Michael A. Zimmerman, 56, Dover, Delaware, is the subject of new charges when a federal grand jury released a superseding indictment with additional fraud and money-laundering offenses.
A 34-count indictment was unsealed charging five people with various crimes stemming from their participation in a mortgage fraud scheme between May 2004 and February 2009 that involved fraudulent documents, inflated purchase prices on loan documents for more than 100 Philadelphia properties and resulted in more than $20 million in fraudulent loan proceeds.
Mitchell Cohen, the owner of the now defunct Buy-A-Home real estate brokerage business, was sentenced in Manhattan, New York, federal court to 70 months in prison for participating in a multi-million dollar mortgage fraud scheme and for committing perjury.
Tandy Anne Kertanis, 33, Reno, Nevada, who fraudulently obtained a $228,000 home equity loan in her father and mother-in-law’s names by forging their signature and the signatures of others, has been sentenced to 81 months in prison and ordered to pay $228,000 in restitution for her guilty pleas to identity theft and money laundering charges.
A federal superseding indictment charged nine additional defendants with racketeering, investment fraud, mortgage fraud, bank bribery and money laundering. This latest round of criminal charges resulting from Operation Wax House, a mortgage fraud investigation which began in the Western District of North Carolina in 2007, brings the total number of defendants charged to date to 92, of which 66 have pleaded guilty.
Quelyory A. Rigal, a/k/a Kelly, Homestead, Florida, was convicted after a jury trial before U.S. District Judge William J. Zloch in Fort Lauderdale, FL. Sentencing is scheduled for July 18, 2013 at 10:30 a.m.
David C. Christian, 63, Catonsville, Maryland, a real estate appraiser, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge James K. Bredar to 15 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, for conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Judge Bredar also ordered Christian to pay restitution of $2,440,804.
Adam Teague, 39, Ellijay, Georgia, former bank vice president, was sentenced to serve over five years in federal prison for conspiring to defraud Appalachian Community Bank