Mario Alvarenga, Rajesh Maddiwar, and Amir Meiri were arrested for participating in a scheme wherein, through an organization that advertised help to those seeking loan modifications to avoid foreclosure, obtained millions of dollars by deceiving homeowners into selling their homes to a company associated with the defendants.
Mark Yaffe, 55, Tampa, Florida, has pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud admitting his role in misrepresenting the extent of company collateral to Sovereign Bank in order to borrow $35 million.
Steven Barry Ruza, 52, Orchard Lake, Michigan, and his company, Home Legal Group, Inc., have been charged with 30 felony counts for allegedly stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from Michigan victims that were facing mortgage foreclosures.
Jason Calabrese, 43, Watertown, Connecticut, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Janet Bond Arterton in New Haven, Connecticut, to his involvement in a series of fraudulent mortgage loan applications.
Paxton Jeffrey Anderson, 44, Montevideo, Minnesota, and Joseph John Plany, 42, Hutto, Texas, were sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Susan R. Bolton to eight years and four years in prison, respectively, and ordered to pay $3,270,425 in restitution. The defendants ran a scam wherein, unbeknownst to the borrowers, they forged and altered draw requests, and other documents, to withdraw money from the construction loans then used that money to buy racehorses and trips to the Kentucky Derby, among other things. Continue Reading…
Eric Hulsman, a Georgia real estate investor, pleaded guilty to his role in conspiracies to rig bids and commit mail fraud at public real estate foreclosure auctions in Georgia.
Arlene Jeanette Mojardin, 32, Bakersfield, California, was sentenced by United States District Judge Anthony W. Ishii to two years and six months in prison for conspiring to commit bank fraud, mail fraud, and wire fraud, in connection with a mortgage fraud scheme in Bakersfield.
Lynwood Patrick, Jr., 39, East Hartford, Connecticut, was arrested on a federal criminal complaint charging him with wire fraud in connection with his submission of a fraudulent application for a personal mortgage modification. Continue Reading…
Franklin Thad Harris, 59, and Merlin D. Unruh, 53, both of Grand Junction, Colorado, were sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Christine M. Arguello to serve 36 months and 28 months in federal prison, respectively, for money laundering.
Ania Nowak, 48, Belvidere, New Jersey, a former real estate title agent was sentenced to 66 months in prison for carrying out a mortgage fraud scheme in which she obtained seven loans, totaling more than $3.7 million, on two properties located in Wood-Ridge, New Jersey and Belvidere, New Jersey.