Sergio Natera, 35, Bridgeport, Connecticut, a licensed real estate agent, pleaded guilty before United States Magistrate Judge Holly B. Fitzsimmons in Bridgeport to one count of bank fraud stemming from his involvement in a “short sale” mortgage fraud scheme. A short sale transaction involves a mortgage holder or lender entering into an agreement to release its mortgage or lien on real property in exchange for payment of less than the

Monica Cardona, 39, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey, a former loan officer at a Hackensack, New Jersey realty company, was sentenced to a year and a day in prison for committing mortgage fraud in connection with the sale of a residential property she owned in Westwood, New Jersey. Cardona pleaded guilty before United States District Judge William H. Walls on January 26, 2010, to a

Gregory Cooper was sentenced to 210 months in prison today for defrauding homeowners in Queens and the Bronx, New york, through a predatory mortgage scheme and for carrying out a separate scheme to defraud mortgage brokers around the country by selling them fraudulent lists of potential customers. A jury found Cooper guilty of nine counts of mail fraud and two counts of conspiracy

Stepping up efforts to prevent home loan rescue scams, a free, five-and-half-minute educational video has been released that provides useful information about home foreclosure and tips to avoid becoming a victim of scam artists.

The video is available on the Attorney General’s website, www.azag.gov, or on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/user/AZAttorneyGeneral. It was made possible by last year’s historic settlement between the State of Arizona and Countrywide Financial Corporation

Irshad a/k/a “Tony” Ramzan, 36, Baldwin, New York, a former mortgage broker who supervised the operations of Queens-based Platinum Funding, was sentenced to seven years in prison for his roles in a scheme to steal over $6 million in the proceeds of home mortgage loans issued by various banks for the purchase of residential properties, which funds were supposed to be used to pay off existing mortgages on the properties, and in another