Aleksandr Kravchenko, 36, and Galina Kravchenko, 35, King County, Washington, who fled to Moldova, Eastern Europe, before being indicted by a federal grand jury for bank fraud related to loans fraudulently obtained from Westsound Bank, entered guilty pleas in U.S. District Court in Seattle, Washington.
Six individuals have been charged with violations of federal law in what the indictment alleges was a scheme to market and sell home loan modification services to distressed homeowners trying to save their homes from foreclosure following the financial crisis of 2008. Investigators believe the alleged scheme involved more than 10,000 victims in nearly every state in the country with losses of more than $33 million.
Gabriela Carter, 43, Sacramento, California, is the subject of an eight-count grand jury indictment charging her with bank fraud for allegedly submitting fraudulent loan applications to federally insured financial institutions to obtain real estate loans that her clients were not qualified to receive.
Alan David Tikal, 46, the principal operator of a large-scale mortgage fraud/mortgage elimination scheme, was sentenced to 24 years in prison.
Joel Wilson, 32, Saginaw, Michigan, was convicted by a jury on nine felony charges for his role in an extensive Michigan Ponzi scheme wherein he defrauded hundreds of Michigan victims out of millions of dollars. In January 2014, extradition efforts were initiated to retrieve Wilson from Germany after he was on the lam in Europe for more than a year.
Agustin Simon, 53, Patterson, California, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Lawrence J. O’Neill to 15 months in prison for conspiring to commit bank fraud. Simon was convicted of submitting fraudulent short-sale applications, which caused financial institutions to approve the charge-off of funds for the short-sale of his home.
Rachel Siders, 39, Roseville, California, was convicted by a federal jury and found guilty of bank fraud, making a false loan application, and committing aggravated identity theft. Continue Reading…
Dana Faulkner, 48, Oakland, California, was sentenced by United States District Judge John A. Mendez to one year in prison for conspiring to commit mail fraud and make false statements in loan applications. Faulkner is the ninth defendant to be sentenced as the result of a large scale mortgage fraud scheme operating out of the headquarters of Liberty Real Estate & Investment Company and Liberty Mortgage Company.
Carolyn Marie Jones, 51, Corona, California, who was the chief executive officer of a high-end jean company that outfitted Hollywood celebrities, pleaded guilty in federal court to bank fraud and bankruptcy fraud offenses admitting she used fraudulent information to defraud lenders.
Susanne Helbig, 50, Roanoke, Virginia, the former majority owner of a construction company who recruited a number of strawbuyers to defraud financial institutions of millions of dollars through an intricate mortgage fraud conspiracy, was sentenced in the United States District Court for the Western District of Virginia in Lynchburg.