James Fidel Sotolongo, 49, Port Orange, Florida, Stephanie Musselwhite, 52, Daytona Beach, Florida, and Christopher Mencis, 53, Longwood, Florida, were sentenced by United States District Court Judge John A. Jarvey for their respective roles in a mortgage fraud scheme wherein they ripped off $9.3M from JP Morgan Chase, $1.6M from Wells Fargo and $1.5M from Bank of America.
Four defendants were sentenced on February 4, 2015, by U.S. District Judge Richard L. Voorhees for their involvement in a consumer and mortgage fraud conspiracy which resulted in multi-million dollar losses for consumers and federal agencies. Continue Reading…
Martin Wayne Flanders, 50, formerly of Roseville, California, and Ligia Sandoval Spafford, 48, Roseville, pleaded guilty to mail fraud for their participation in a loan modification fraud scheme that targeted distressed homeowners. The couple used Ghost offers – i.e., fictitious offers to purchase the victim’s property through short sale – and skeleton bankruptcies – i.e., sham bankruptcy petitions that were quickly dismissed, to defraud homeowners.
Stephen Mayer, 51, Miami, Florida, was convicted by a federal jury for his role as the ringleader of an illegal flipping conspiracy with estimate losses to lenders in excess of $3 million.
Luis J. Rojas, 38, Hendserson, Nevada, a criminal defense attorney, pleaded guilty in federal court to making false statements in connection with a fraudulent short sale of his property in Henderson Nevada.
Karl Oreste, 56, Miramar, Florida, was sentenced to 100 months imprisonment, to be followed by five years of supervised release, and ordered to pay $8,215,197.28 in restitution for his recruitment of straw buyers and other conduct in an $8,000,000 mortgage fraud scheme.
Joseph Brogan, 41, St. Louis, Missouri, pled guilty to multiple fraud charges related to a scheme involving applications for home loans.
Ronald Gene Morgan, 60, Las Vegas, Nevada, has been arrested on wire fraud charges for taking hundreds of thousands in fees from persons who thought the payments would help them obtain loans for various business ventures.
Delores Reeves, 59, Fortuna, California, has been indicted and charged with three counts of mail fraud and two counts of aggravated identity theft for allegedly retaining funds intended for hard money real estate loans. Continue Reading…
Obinna Gregory Okoro, 25, of Houston, has been ordered to prison after conspiring to use personal identifiers of victims to create fake bank accounts online, link those accounts to existing bank accounts and drain them of the funds.