Archives For November 30, 1999

Michael K. Lewis, 57, Takoma Park, Maryland, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Deborah K. Chasanow to 78 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, for conspiracy and bankruptcy fraud arising from a scheme in which he and his conspirators offered to help financially vulnerable individuals save their homes from foreclosure, and instead defrauded homeowners and mortgage lenders. Continue Reading...

Dustin Ray Sherwood, 37, Trimble, Missouri, who had a large farming operation in Buchanan and Clinton counties, has been sentenced in federal court for making false statements to obtain loans and for selling some of the crops that were supposed to secure loans. Sherwood was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Ortrie D. Smith on Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2009. The court ordered Continue Reading...

Rene Alvarez, 39, San Jose, California, was arrested by investigators with the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office on charges that he defrauded hundreds of homeowners, whose homes were in foreclosure, in a wide-ranging loan modification scam. There is an outstanding arrest warrant on the same charges for his cohort, 34-year old Mariano Ortega,

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Mario Bernadel, 51, Phoenix, Arizona, has been convicted on 19 counts of Conspiracy to Commit Mail, Wire, and Bank Fraud; Mail Fraud; Wire Fraud; Bank Fraud, and Transactional Money Laundering as a result of his involvement in a cash back mortgage fraud scheme. Sentencing is set before U.S. District Judge Stephen M. McNamee on November 30, 2009.

Bernadel played a leadership

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Michael A. Meisner, 52, Boca Raton, Florida, pled guilty before the Honorable U.S. Magistrate Judge James M. Hopkins to a three-count Information filed on September 2, 2009, which charged mail fraud, in violation of 18 U.S.C.§ 1341, loan application fraud, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1014, and tax evasion, in violation of 26 U.S.C. § 7201. Bond was set at a $500,000 corporate surety bond, and a $500,000 personal surety

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Eugene J. Lockhart, Jr., 48, Carrollton, Texas, a former player with the Dallas Cowboys, and eight others, have been indicted on various charges related to a mortgage fraud scheme he and the others allegedly ran in the Dallas, Texas area from 2001 through 2005. Lockhart and co-defendant Continue Reading...

Edward J. Safdie, 71, Madison, Connecticut, was sentenced September 1, 2009, by United States District Judge Janet Bond Arterton in New Haven to 51 months of imprisonment, followed by five years of supervised release, for engaging in a fraud scheme during which he received funding from multiple sources to assist him in purchasing The Inn at Chester, Chester, Connecticut. On January

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Ronald Brvenik, Prince Frederick, MD, a real estate appraiser licensed in the state of Maryland, was charged in 2003, along with 9 others, for allegedly providing false appraisals in an illegal flipping scheme.  The charges against Brvenik were dismissed before trial.  Brvenik then moved to obtain an order against the

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12 defendants and 3 companies were indicted on mortgage fraud offenses, including engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity, a first degree felony, for securing $14,766,515 in fraudulent loans used to purchase seven homes in Cuyahoga, Ottawa and Lucas counties, Ohio. Six of the seven houses fell into foreclosure. The

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John T. Willard, Hamilton, Ohio, was suspended from the practice of law by the Supreme Court of Ohio for one year, with the final six months of that term stayed, for professional misconduct arising from Willard‘s participation in a “foreclosure rescue” business in which he accepted client referrals and shared legal fees with non-attorneys who engaged in the unlicensed practice of

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