Archives For mortgage broker

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.

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…

Edward Khalfin, 58, San Mateo, California was found guilty by a federal jury of 12 counts of mail fraud and 11 counts of making false statements on loan applications. Robin Dimiceli, 53, Brentwood, California was found guilty by a federal jury of six counts of mail fraud and six counts of making false statements on loan applications.  The convictions arise out of a builder bailout scheme that provided financial incentives to straw buyers to get them to purchase homes that developers were having difficulty selling

According to court documents, from August 2006 through May 2008, two brothers, Volodymyr Dubinsky, 56, formerly of Folsom, California, and Leonid Doubinski, 50, formerly of Copperopolis, California, built, developed, and sold real estate in Carmichael, California, Sacramento, California, and Copperopolis, California. As the real estate market declined, the brothers recruited family members, employees, and associates with good credit to act as straw buyers for residential properties. The Dubinsky brothers have not been apprehended and are fugitives thought to be residing in Ukraine. Continue Reading…

Anthony Salcedo, mortgage broker, 34, Fair Oaks, California, was sentenced to five years and four months in prison for a mortgage fraud scheme. Salcedo was found guilty by a federal jury of one count of conspiracy and four counts of mail fraud after a five-day trial in June 2015. Continue Reading…

Valeri Kalyuzhnyy, 44, Citrus Heights, California, was sentenced to 2 years in prison.

On June 25, 2015, Kalyuzhnyy pleaded guilty to making a false statement on a loan application. According to court documents, Kalyuzhnyy, while working as a mortgage broker, bought two homes using the credit information of a straw buyer. The loan applications that were used to secure the properties contained numerous false statements regarding the buyer’s intent to occupy the property, employer, occupation, and monthly income. In order to support the inflated monthly income listed on the loan application, fraudulent tax returns were submitted. On July 17, 2007, Kalyuzhnyy gave the straw buyer a check for $29,000.

United States District Judge Morrison C. England Jr. sentenced Kalyuzhnyy. The case was the product of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation. Assistant United States Attorney Jared C. Dolan prosecuted the case.

Michael P. O’Donnell, 53, mortgage broker, Middleton, Massachusetts was convicted of one count of bank fraud after a three-day bench trial before the Honorable Douglas P. Woodlock, United States District Judge.  Judge Woodlock scheduled sentencing for October 20, 2015. Continue Reading…

Vince Manglardi, 59, real estate developer, Long Grove, Illinois; Theodore “TJ” Wojtas, Jr., 43, real estate developer, Glenview, Illinois; David W. Belconis, 56, attorney who owned and operated Classic Title, Inc., Long Grove, Illinois; Nunzio L. Greico, 63, Palatine, Illinois, who was formerly an employee of the developers; Walter Vali, also known as “Wally Mohammad” and “Mohammad Valimohammad,” 62, former mortgage loan originator, who did business as Sunshine Funding, Inc., Mundelein, Illinois; and Karin L. Ganswer, 62, former licensed real estate salesperson, Palatine, Illinois were indicted by an federal grand jury and charged with mail and wire fraud in connection with the marketing and sale of condominiums at a 50-acre development in Palatine, Illinois known as “The Woods at Countryside.”  They are alleged to have participated in a mortgage fraud scheme which caused more than $16 million in losses to banks, mortgage lenders, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac. Continue Reading…