Archives For Employment/Income

Robert Charles Sneed, 56, Indio, California, pleaded guilty today to one count of theft of government property for stealing tens of thousands of dollars from the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Hardest Hit Fund in California, a program that provides mortgage payment assistance for unemployed or underemployed homeowners.

According to his plea agreement, in February 2016, Sneed lied under penalty of perjury when he signed an affidavit saying that he was unemployed, when in fact he was employed, to receive Hardest Hit Funds administered by Keep Your Home California. Based on his statement and continuing concealment of his employment, he received 18 monthly payments of unemployment mortgage assistance payments of approximately $2,279. He received more than $41,000 from March 2016 through July 2017. He then became delinquent on his mortgage and deeded his house to his 18-year old stepson, who filed a Chapter 13 bankruptcy petition based on Sneed’s request.

United States District Judge John F. Walter has scheduled an October 25, 2021 sentencing hearing, at which time Sneed will face a statutory maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison.

Anyone who steals from or defrauds the Hardest Hit Fund will be investigated and prosecuted,” said Christy Goldsmith Romero, Special Inspector General. “I thank the United States Attorney’s Office and FBI for standing with SIGTARP to bring justice.

Keep Your Home California provided these funds under the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Hardest Hit Fund that provided mortgage payment assistance program that provided eligible low or moderate income homeowners who were involuntarily unemployed with temporary mortgage assistance so that they could avoid foreclosure and stay in their homes. SIGTARP investigated the case with the FBI. Assistant United States Attorney Benjamin J. Weir of the United States Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California is prosecuting this case.

Eric Hill, 50, Tyrone, Georgia (charged by Information); Robert Kelske, 52, Smyrna, Georgia; Fawziyyah Connor, 41, Tyrone, Georgia; Stephanie Hogan, 57, Norcross, Georgia; Jerod Little, 42, McDonough, Georgia; Renee Little, 33, McDonough, Georgia; Maurice Lawson, 36, Powder Springs, Georgia; Todd Taylor, 54,  Fairburn, Georgia; Paige McDaniel, 49, Stockbridge, Georgia; Donald Fontenot, 52, Locust Grove, Georgia (charged by Information); Anthony Richard, 44,  Locust Grove, Georgia; Cephus Chapman, 49, Warner Robins, Georgia, have been charged in a mortgage fraud scheme allegedly spanning more than four years and resulting in the approval of more than 100 mortgages based on fabricated documents and false information.

According to the indictment, and other information presented in court: The defendants participated in a scheme in which homebuyers and real estate agents submitted fraudulent loan applications to induce mortgage lenders to fund mortgages.  Listing agents Eric Hill and Robert Kelske represented a major nationwide homebuilder, and helped more than 100 homebuyers who were looking to buy a home, but who were unqualified to obtain a mortgage, commit fraud.  The agents instructed the homebuyers as to what type of assets they needed to claim to have in the bank, and what type of employment and income they needed to submit in their mortgage applications.

Hill and Kelske then coordinated with multiple document fabricators, including defendants Fawziyyah Connor and Stephanie Hogan, who altered the homebuyers’ bank statements to inflate the their assets and to create bank entries reflecting false direct deposits from an employer selected by the real estate agent.  The document fabricators also generated fake earnings statements that matched the direct deposit entries to make it appear that the homebuyer was employed, and earning income, from a fake employer.  Other participants in the scheme then acted as employment verifiers and responded to phone calls or emails from lenders to falsely verify the homebuyers’ employment.  Defendants Jerod Little, Renee Little, Maurice Lawson, Todd Taylor, Paige McDaniel and Donald Fontenot acted as employment verifiers.  Hill and Kelske coordinated the creation and submission of the false information so that the lies to the lenders were consistent.

In another aspect of the scheme, real estate agents Anthony Richard and Cephus Chapman falsely claimed to represent homebuyers as their selling agents in order to receive commissions from the home sales.  In reality, these real estate agents had never even met the homebuyers they claimed to represent.  To avoid detection, the agents often notified closing attorneys that they would not be available for the home closing, and sent wire instructions for the receipt of their commissions.  When these purported selling agents received their unearned commissions, they kicked back the majority of the commissions to Hill or Kelske for enabling them to be added to the deal, keeping a small share for their role in the scheme.

Many of the loans are insured by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) resulting in claims being paid for mortgages that have gone through loan modification.

These defendants allegedly used their knowledge of the real estate lending process to manipulate the system for their own benefit,” said U.S. Attorney Byung J. “BJay” Pak.  “Mortgage fraudsters threaten the soundness of the real estate market in our community.  We will investigate and charge anyone who takes advantage of our mortgage lending system for their own personal gain.”

These charges represent the government’s commitment toward combating such alleged criminal activity,” said Chris Hacker, Special Agent in Charge of FBI Atlanta. “We will steadfastly protect American citizens and the real estate market from predators who drag down our economy by deceit to line their own pockets.”

What we have here is a group of mortgage industry professionals that have allegedly perpetrated a sophisticated mortgage fraud for profit scheme that was designed to enrich themselves at the expense of a federal housing program,” said Wyatt Achord, Special Agent in Charge, Office of the Inspector General, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. “The efforts that brought forward these charges demonstrate that when law enforcement is made aware of such schemes, we will commit the necessary resources to make sure that fraudsters are brought to justice.”

As charged, the defendants engaged in a multiyear scheme to defraud Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.  The Federal Housing Finance Agency Office of Inspector General (FHFA-OIG) will investigate and hold accountable those who seek to victimize these Government Sponsored Entities supervised and regulated by FHFA”, said FHFA-OIG Special Agent in-Charge Edwin Bonano.

Members of the public are reminded that the indictment and informations only contain charges.  The defendants are presumed innocent of the charges and it will be the government’s burden to prove the defendants’ guilt beyond a reasonable doubt at trial.

This case is being investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Department of Housing and Urban Development Office of Inspector General, and Federal Housing Finance Agency Office of Inspector General.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Alison Prout is prosecuting the case.

For further information please contact the U.S. Attorney’s Public Affairs Office at USAGAN.PressEmails@usdoj.gov or (404) 581-6016.  The Internet address for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern

Mahendra Prasad, 55, Fremont, California, was sentenced by to 15 months in prison and ordered to pay $328,000 in restitution for his role in a mortgage fraud scheme.

On May 22, 2017, Prasad pleaded guilty to one count of mail fraud affecting a financial institution. Co-defendants Jyoteshna Karan, Praveen Singh, Sunita Singh and Nani Isaac are scheduled for a jury trial in U.S. District Court in Fresno, California, on Monday, December 11, 2017.

According to court documents, in 2006, Prasad caused loan application packages that contained false statements to be submitted to a mortgage lender in order to buy a property in Sacramento. The false statements included statements concerning Prasad’s employer, income, and purported intention to occupy the property as his primary residence. Following his fraudulent purchase, Prasad, with the assistance of others, rented the property as Section 8 housing and collected rents. Prasad did not reside in or occupy the property as his primary residence.

In 2013, Prasad applied to a bank to sell the property to another person at a loss to the bank. He falsely claimed to the bank that the “short” sale was an “arm’s length” transaction, and that neither he nor the buyer were related by commercial enterprise. Prasad’s conduct caused a loss to a financial institution of approximately $328,000.

Prasad was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Lawrence J. O’Neill.  The sentence was announced by U.S. Attorney Phillip A. Talbert.  The case was the product of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Stanislaus County District Attorney’s Office, the Federal Housing Finance Agency Office of Inspector General, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Office of Inspector General, with assistance from the Office of the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Henry Z. Carbajal III and Christopher D. Baker are prosecuting the case.

 

 

Gregory Gibbons, 51, Pleasantville, New York, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud affecting a financial institution, before Chief U.S. District Judge Frank P. Geraci, Jr. The charge carries a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison and a $1,000,000 fine.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Kathleen A. Lynch and Elizabeth Moellering, who are handling the case, stated that between June 2008 and February 2009, the defendant conspired with others, including Alagi Samba, a realtor, and Daniel Badu, to devise a scheme to obtain eight loans for unqualified borrowers for homes in the Bronx, New York.  As part of the scheme, Gibbons acted as the mortgage broker and altered income and asset documents of the borrowers before they were sent to financial institutions.

For instance, Gibbons altered and created documents to make it appear that defendant Badu qualified for a mortgage on a property at 814 Faile Street in the Bronx. The defendant indicated that Badu was a research ophthalmologist and earned a specific income when in fact, Badu was not a research ophthalmologist nor did he receive the income stated on a loan application. Gibbons knew that these false loan documents were submitted to The Funding Source, a mortgage bank, in order to secure a loan insured by the Federal Housing Administration. Based on that false application and supporting documentation, the loan was approved. The Funding Source then sold the loan on the secondary market to M &T Bank, which wired funds from New York through the State of Ohio to purchase the loan.

The defendant and his co-conspirators arranged for additional fraudulent loans to be approved, including another loan for Badu, and caused wire communications to be transmitted in interstate commerce for those loans. These fraudulent transactions caused losses of approximately $4,800,007 affecting M&T Bank and other financial institutions including SunTrust Bank, JPMorgan Chase Bank, and Citibank.

Defendants Badu and Samba have also been convicted and are awaiting sentencing. Charges are pending against co-defendants Julio Rodriguez, Laurence Savedoff, and Tina Brown.

Acting U.S. Attorney James P. Kennedy Jr. announced the plea which is the result of an investigation by the United States Postal Inspection Service, under the direction of Inspector-in-Charge Shelly Binkowski, Boston Division, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Brad Geary, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, under the direction of Special Agent-in-Charge Adam S. Cohen.

Sentencing for defendant Gibbons is scheduled for October 19, 2017, at 2:00 p.m. before Judge Geraci.

Sergey Shchirskiy, 41, Sacramento, California, was sentenced to seven years and 10 months in prison for his participation in two mortgage fraud schemes and one tax fraud scheme.

According to court documents, Shchirskiy pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud in each of the two mortgage fraud cases, as well as one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States and one count of aggravated identity theft in the third tax fraud case.

According to the plea agreement, Shchirskiy was a loan processor in one mortgage fraud scheme (2:11-cr-514). Between April 2007 and November 2007, the co-conspirators used straw buyers to buy properties and then take out Home Equity Lines of Credit on the houses using fraudulent documents and statements. Shchirskiy helped to create the fraudulent supporting documents. All of the properties were foreclosed on, resulting in at least $1.5 million in losses to lenders.

According to the plea agreement in the second mortgage fraud scheme (2:12-cr-060), in April 2007, Shchirskiy recruited straw buyers to purchase a houses based on fraudulent loan applications. The applications gave false information about the buyer’s employment, income, assets, and intention to occupy the properties. The properties were foreclosed upon and resulted in a loss of more than $1.2 million to lenders.

According to the plea agreement in the tax fraud scheme (2:14-cr-198), between March 2011 and April 2011, Shchirskiy conspired with others to obtain false tax refunds by submitting fraudulent claims using the identities of various individuals, at least eight of which were stolen. Shchirskiy claimed Earned Income Tax Credit based on false claims of employment from California’s In-Home Supportive Services program. Shchirskiy and his co-conspirators made approximately 80 attempts to file fraudulent tax returns, attempting to receive $661,286 in fraudulent returns from the Internal Revenue Service. The IRS ultimately issued approximately $88,728 in fraudulent refunds.

U.S. Attorney Phillip A. Talbert announced the sentenced and U.S. District Judge Troy L. Nunley presided.  The cases were the product of investigations by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Heiko Coppola and Michele Beckwith prosecuted the cases.

Michael P. O’Donnell, mortgage broker, 54, Middleton, Massachusetts, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Douglas P. Woodlock to three years in prison, two years of supervised release and ordered to pay a fine of $150,000 in connection with his role in 20 fraudulent loan transactions in the North Shore area of Massachusetts.  In July 2015, O’Donnell was convicted following a three-day bench trial of attempted bank fraud. Continue Reading…

Vera Kuzmenko, 45, Loomis, California and Rachel Siders, 40, Roseville, California, were found guilty by a federal jury after a 16 day trial of multiple counts of mail and wire fraud associated with their involvement in a mortgage fraud scheme that cost financial institutions over $16 million.

Vera Kuzmenko was also found guilty of witness tampering and money laundering associated with the scheme.

According to evidence presented at trial, from late 2006 through early 2008, the defendants engaged in a mortgage fraud scheme involving over 30 properties in the Sacramento, California, area. The defendants were responsible for securing more than $30 million in residential mortgage loans on more than 30 homes purchased through straw buyers. Records introduced at trial showed Vera Kuzmenko received millions of dollars and Rachel Siders received hundreds of thousands of dollars. Continue Reading…

Rosita Vilchez, 39, a fugitive in Lima, Peru, until she was extradited to the United States in June 2015, pled guilty to leading a wide-ranging mortgage fraud conspiracy that targeted hundreds of victims in the northern Virginia Hispanic community. The mortgage fraud scheme, which operated between August 2005 and August 2007, generated nearly $7.4 million in fraudulent proceeds and caused losses of more than $15 million to lenders, most of which were federally insured. Continue Reading…

Soo Kyung Hong, aka Maria Hong, 48, Los Angeles, California, was sentenced to three years in federal prison for orchestrating a scheme that led to the fraudulent purchase of four properties worth more than $2 million.

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Darryl Burke, 50, and Vicki Garland, 50, both of Delray Beach, Florida, were sentenced by U.S. District Judge James I. Cohn for their roles in a multi-million dollar bank fraud scheme spanning from at least 2002 through 2013, wherein they used fake documents, including false wage and tax documents, and false claims of employment and income, to obtain bank loans for investment properties in low-income neighborhoods.

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