Archives For Tennessee

Latrice Calvin, 48, Collierville, Tennessee was sentenced in connection with a scheme to defraud mortgage lending institutions and individuals of more than $1.5 million dollars.

According to the information, between April 2016, and October 2018, Calvin, through her company, Trinity Home and Investments, made false statements and representations to mortgage lenders and individuals to induce them to fund mortgage loans and invest monies with Trinity.

Calvin entered a plea of guilty to a one-count information charging her with wire fraud in May 2019.

On October 18, 2019, United States District Judge John T. Fowlkes, Jr., sentenced Calvin to 75 months imprisonment followed by 4 years of supervised release. She was also ordered to pay restitution to the lenders and investors in the total amount of $1,524,564.28 and to pay a money judgment to the United States in the same amount.

U.S. Attorney D. Michael Dunavant announced the sentence today.

U.S. Attorney D. Michael Dunavant said, “Financial fraud can happen anywhere, and can be devastating to lending institutions and individual investors. The defendant used her position of trust and authority to steal proceeds for her personal benefit, and her dishonesty has been exposed. We are pleased that justice has been achieved on behalf of the victims, and we commend the FBI for their outstanding investigation in this disturbing case. Wherever fraud occurs in the Western District of Tennessee, this office will be prepared to hold offenders accountable.”

The Federal Bureau of Investigation investigated this case.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Carroll L. André III prosecuted this case on behalf of the government.

Thomas L. Boyd, 44, real estate investor, Memphis, Tennessee, was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison for his role in a scheme to fraudulently obtain mortgage loans. An indictment returned last September by a federal grand jury alleged that Boyd, the owner of Wonderful Properties, LLC, made false statements and presented false documents to Regions Bank, First Tennesse Bank, Bank of America and Oak Tree Funding on behalf of persons who were financing the purchase of properties from Boyd and Wonderful Properties.

Boyd pled guilty in May to a charge of bank fraud and admitted at his plea hearing to making false statements to Regions Bank in connection with a mortgage loan being made to an individual who was financing the purchase of a property from Boyd.

In imposing the sentence, U.S. District Judge Sheryl H. Lipman also ordered Boyd to pay total restitution in the amount of $383,375.43 and to serve a 3-year term of supervised release following his release from prison.

Lawrence J. Laurenzi, Acting U.S. Attorney, announced the sentence. The case was investigated by the FBI; Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) – OIG; Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD); Postal Inspection Service and IRS. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Carroll L. Andre III and Lorraine Craig prosecuted this case on the government’s behalf

Thomas L. Boyd, 44, Memphis, Tennessee, are real estate investor, pled guilty to bank fraud.  In September 2016, Boyd was indicted by a federal grand jury in connection with a scheme to fraudulently obtain mortgage loans. The indictment alleged that Boyd, the owner of Wonderful Properties, LLC made false statements and presented false documents to Regions Bank, First Tennessee Bank, Bank of America and Oak Tree Funding on behalf of persons who were financing the purchase of properties from Boyd and Wonderful Properties.

According to the indictment, Boyd often made false statements on the loan closing documents by failing to disclose to the lenders on HUD-1 settlement statements that he was kicking back a portion of the loan proceeds to borrowers. Boyd’s scheme caused the lenders to disburse approximately $635,000 in loan proceeds.

At his plea hearing, Boyd admitted making false statements to Regions Bank in connection with a mortgage loan being made to an individual who was financing the purchase of a property from Boyd.

Boyd faces a maximum penalty of 30 years of imprisonment on the bank fraud charge and a fine of up to $1,000,000 and 5 years supervised release and a mandatory special assessment of $100.

The defendant is scheduled to be sentenced on August 9, 2017, by U.S. District Judge Sheryl H. Lipman.

Lawrence J. Laurenzi, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Tennessee, announced the guilty plea. The case was investigated by the FBI; Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) – OIG; Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD); Postal Inspection Service and IRS. Assistant U.S. Attorney Carroll L. Andre III is prosecuting this case on the government’s behalf.

Cristina Montijo was the subject of a complaint and arrest warrant issued in the Southern District of New York on charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bank fraud, wire fraud and bank fraud in connection with fraudulent emails.  She was arrested in the Southern District of California.

According to the complaint, sworn to by a Detective with the New York City Police Department for the purpose of demonstrating probable cause for the issuance of the arrest warrant, on or about June 21, 2016 Victim-1 who was in the process of purchasing a home, received an email that purported to be from Victim-1’s attorney.  The fraudulent email instructed Victim-1 to wire $190,000 to a bank account at a San Diego Credit Union to be held in escrow for the home purchase.  A copy of the residential purchase contract for the property that Victim-1 was purchasing was included in the email. Victim-1 wired the money and then called the real estate attorney to confirm receipt of the wire and was told that the attorney had not requested the wire.  Victim-1 realized that the email address on the email received differed from the real estate attorney’s true email address by one character.  Victim-1 recalled the wire.

Victim-1 later received another email from the incorrect email address.  The new fraudulent email supplied an additional bank account number for Victim-1 to deposit funds into because the prior wire of funds had not been received.

According to the complaint, based on review of bank records, the detective learned that the bank account number in the first fraudulent email to Victim-1 was registered to Montijo.  The account was opened about June 16, 2016 and closed about June 23, 2016 due to suspected fraud.

The complaint also states that in or about November 3, 2015, Victim-2, an individual in Tennessee, received a fraudulent email purportedly from Victim-2’s real estate agent directing Victim-2 to wire approximately $181,000 to a bank account.  Victim-2 later realized the email address was different by one character from that of the actual real estate agent.  Victim-2 became suspicious and, after contacting the real estate agent, did not wire the funds. That account was also registered to Montijo and was opened about October 3, 2015.

On about November 24, 2015, Victim-3, an individual in Hawaii, received emails purportedly from Victim-3’s escrow officer and real estate agent but which were different from the actual email addresses by one character.  Based on the directives in these fraudulent emails, Victim-3 wired approximately $331,000 to a bank account. That bank account, opened on November 13, 2015, was registered to Fountain Co-Cooperative LLC and was closed December 10, 2015 due to suspected fraud. Montijo was the sold registered agent of Fountain Co-Cooperative, LLC and was registered to an address on Chamoune Avenue in San Diego at which Montijo resided since at least 1993. In November 2015, Montijo wired approximately $181,500 from that account to an account in Malaysia and approximately $118,200 to an account in South Africa.

In about April 2016, Victim-4, an individual in San Francisco, California, received a fraudulent email purporting to be from the real estate agent involved in a real estate transaction for Victim-4 and instructing Victim-4 to wire approximately $127,791 to be held in escrow in an identified bank account.  Victim-4 wired the funds and later discovered the email address was one character different from that of the real estate agent. That bank account was opened about March 31, 2016 and closed April 5, 2016 and was registered to Fountain Co-Cooperative, LLC.

On about April 28, 2016, Victim-5 received a fraudulent email purportedly from Victim-5’s attorney. Victim-5 later learned the attorney’s email account had been compromised or hacked.  At the direction of the fraudulent emails, one of which referenced the sender’s “account secretary Christina Montijo who is a trustee to the trust account” (the fraudulent emails were later traced to an originating IP address in South Africa), Victim-5 wired approximately $250,000 to a bank account. That bank account, opened about March 31, 2016 and closed about May 6 due to fraudulent activity, was registered to Montijo and Fountain Co-Cooperative LLC.   On about May 4, 2016, Montijo attempted to wire funds to another bank account that was jointly registered to Montijo and Albert Montijo (believed to be the name of Montijo’s deceased husband.)   Montijo was informed by bank employees that the wire was potentially fraudulent and Montijo claimed that she had been owed the funds from Victim-5 from a real estate transaction from several years prior and that she had business partners abroad.

On about June 30, 2016, Victim-6, an individual in the Southern District of New York, received a fraudulent email purportedly from Victim-6’s attorney, later learning the attorney’s emails had been compromised or hacked.  Victim-6 wired approximately $240,000 to a bank account, again registered to Fountain Co-Cooperative, LLC. Montijo attempted to wire a portion of these funds to an entity called “Refunds LLC” purportedly for a “refund owed” but actually sent to an account in the name of “Reofunds LLC.”

Montijo registered a company called “All Cover LLC” in the state of California for the purpose of “buying/selling real estate” On about July 14, 2016, Montijo attempted to cash four checks made out to All Cover totaling approximately $46,500.  From discussions with representatives of the three companies that issued the checks, the detective states that he learned that the checks were fraudulent and not written out to All Cover.  The indictment details additional allegedly fraudulent checks that Montijo attempted to cash and which were made out to herself, Fountain Co-Cooperative LLC and a person believe to be Montijo’s mother-in-law.

Ray M. Mubarak, 56, Knoxville, Tennessee, was sentenced to serve 57 months in prison for conducting a scheme to defraud financial institutions and engaging in an unlawful monetary transaction with fraudulently-obtained loan proceeds.  He was also ordered to pay $1,993,938.44 in restitution to three banks and a title insurance company that lost money as a result of the scheme.

Mubarak pleaded guilty in May 2015 to federal charges stemming from his scheme to defraud multiple banks into loaning him over $6 million. He submitted false tax returns and personal financial statements which grossly inflated his income and net worth in order to qualify for the loans. Mubarak also admitted to defrauding the banks by causing them to rely on a fraudulent title opinion letter and forged loan closing documents and deeds.

The trial for Mubarak’s co-defendants, Dianna Mubarak and Blythe Bond Sanders, III, is scheduled for March 1, 2016.

Marbarak was sentenced by the Honorable Pamela L. Reeves, U.S. District Judge.  The investigation was conducted by the Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation and Federal Bureau of Investigation.  The investigation and prosecution of Mubarak was coordinated with the Office of the District Attorney General, 6th Judicial District.  Matthew T. Morris, Assistant U.S. Attorney, represented the United States.

Clifford Elliot Ryan, 29, Chicago, Illinois, was charged in two separate indictments in Tennessee in connection with forgery to obtain a real estate license.  During the course of the investigation, agents from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation developed information that on two different occasions, Ryan hired two different individuals to submit their fingerprints as his so he could obtain a Tennessee real estate license. The investigation additionally revealed Ryan believed prior arrests on his record would prevent him from passing the background check necessary for obtaining a license.

In January, the Wilson County Grand Jury returned indictments for Ryan, a former resident of Tennessee, charging him with one count of Criminal Simulation and one count of Forgery/Passing a Forged Instrument in Wilson County, Tennessee. In March, the Davidson County Grand Jury returned indictments, charging Ryan with one count of Fabrication of Evidence, one count of Attempted Fabrication of Evidence, and one count of Criminal Simulation.

Grady Wayne Fricks, 65, Nashville, Tennessee, pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges arising out of a scheme to defraud Cornerstone Community Bank, Dalton, Georgia, using false appraisals, settlement statements and misrepresentations to qualify for more than a million dollars in loans.

Continue Reading…

Ray M. Mubarak, 55, Knoxville, Tennessee, pleaded guilty on May 18, 2015, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee, Knoxville, to conspiracy to commit bank fraud, bank fraud, and engaging in an unlawful monetary transaction with bank fraud proceeds.

Continue Reading…

Ray M. Mubarak, 54, Knoxville, Tennessee, Dianna Mubarak, 52, Knoxville, and Blythe Bond Sanders, III, 35, Norris, Tennessee, were arrested by federal agents for allegedly participated in a bank fraud conspiracy involving fraudulent loans exceeding $6.7 million.

Continue Reading…

Jayesh Dahyabhai Patel, 49, Knoxville, Tennessee, was sentenced on Jan. 15, 2015, by the Honorable Leon Jordan, U.S. District Court Judge, to serve 42 months in federal prison. Patel was also ordered to pay restitution of $2,806,438.20 to First Community Bank and serve five years of supervised release upon his release from prison.

Continue Reading…