Legislative reforms have been proposed intended to strengthen the hand of prosecutors and law enforcement to combat mortgage fraud.
A bi-partisan package of bills introduced in the Michigan Senate will change Michigan law to better confront the devastating affects of mortgage fraud, including:
• Senate Bill 252, sponsored by Senator James Marleau (R-Rochester), which increases the penalty for violations of the notary act when a document affects interest in real estate
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Paul Redondo, 34, Meridian, Idaho, was sentenced in federal court to three years’ probation, three months of home detention, and 80 hours of community service for misdemeanor theft from a financial institution.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Ronald E. Bush also ordered Redondo to pay $101,459 in restitution. Continue Reading...
Steven Charles Laubly, 62, Clovis, California, was convicted of three counts of failing to file a tax return and one count of tax evasion. The defendant evaded payment of those taxes by, among other things, purchasing property in Hawaii under another person’s name. The guilty verdict was returned by a federal court jury in Fresno, California, after a five-day trial before United States District Judge Lawrence
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Amer Mir, 42, Jersey City, N.J., a former New Jersey loan officer was sentenced to 70 months in prison in connection with a mortgage fraud and property-flipping scheme involving rental properties in Paterson, N.J.
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Jeffrey L. Levine, 70, Atlanta, Georgia, was sentenced by United States District Judge J. Owen Forrester to serve 5 years in federal prison on charges of causing materially false entries that overvalued bank assets to be made in the books, reports, and statements of Omni National Bank.
Levine was sentenced to 5 years
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Delroy Oliver Davy, 38, Lithonia, Georgia, was sentenced by United States District Judge J. Owen Forrester to serve 14 years in federal prison on charges of bank fraud and conspiring to commit bank, mail and wire fraud. Davy‘s sentence is to be followed by 5 years of supervised release, and he was ordered to pay $5,504,431 in restitution. Continue Reading...
Garry Bradford, 62, Sacramento, California, was arrested after a federal grand jury returned a five-count indictment against him on April 14, 2011. He is charged with wire fraud in connection with a real estate investment “Ponzi” scheme.
According to the indictment, from August 2004 until October 2008, Bradford
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Alex P. Soria, 64, Las Vegas, Nevada, was indicted on Wednesday, April 20, 2011, by a federal grand jury on charges that he defrauded distressed homeowners in Las Vegas who were attempting to refinance or adjust their home mortgages. The Defendant was charged with six counts of wire fraud, three counts of mail fraud, one count of concealment of information from the
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Steven J. Kottage, 45, Weston, Connecticut, pleaded guilty before United States District Judge Mark R. Kravitz in New Haven, Connecticut, to two counts of conspiracy stemming from mortgage fraud schemes in which Kottage participated. As previously reported by Mortgage Fraud Blog,
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Homeowners are cautioned about paying to participate in a “mass joinder” lawsuit promising mortgage relief. The lawyers and marketers pushing these suits charge upfront fees and frequently promise results. In reality, litigation is time-consuming and even a qualified attorney can’t guarantee the outcome of a case. Moreover, representatives of a legitimate class-action suit would not ask for money to join.
Homeowners should be especially skeptical of solicitations from out-of-state
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