On Thursday, April 30, 2009, after two days of deliberations, the jury in the trial of Bonfigli v. Strachan, Sonoma County Superior Court Case No. SCV-239528, returned a verdict in favor of the defense.
Defendant Michael D. Smith was represented by lead counsel Rachel Dollar of Smith Dollar PC. Heather Bussing second chaired the majority of the trial and was assisted by Allison Tussey, both of Smith Dollar PC. Defendant Alan
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Wilbur Ballesteros, 33, Lanham, Maryland, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud in connection with a mortgage fraud scheme that falsely promised to help homeowners facing foreclosure keep their homes and repair their damaged credit.
According to his plea agreement, in May 2005, co-defendants Joy Jackson and Jennifer
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Thomas Duane Roderick, 42, Wesley Chapel, Florida, has been indicted by a federal grand jury in Greeneville, Tennessee, charged with one (1) count of wire fraud, three (3) counts of bank fraud, and three (3) counts of money laundering. The indictment was issued on April 15, 2009, but was sealed until Roderick’s arrest in Florida on April 21, 2009. Continue Reading...
Michael Prieskorn, mortgage originator, has had his license revoked by the Minnesota Department of Commerce, who also fined him $2.2 million, for his involvement in the fraudulent sale of approximately 220 homes in new developments in high-growth areas including Eagan, Buffalo, Rochester and St. Cloud, Minnesota. Commerce
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John A. Yanchek, 49, Sarasota, Florida, was sentenced by United States District Judge James D. Whittemore to five years in federal prison for a conspiracy to commit loan fraud, bank fraud, and money laundering. The court also ordered Yanchek to forfeit $7.6 million. Yanchek had pleaded guilty on February 4, 2009.
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Dawn Quiroga, 39, formerly of Edmond and now from Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, pled guilty to money laundering and failure to file a tax return stemming from a mortgage fraud Ponzi scheme.
According to court records, in June of 2006 Quiroga began soliciting investors for a business she called Buyers Solutions Marketing, LLC
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Joseph Kaiser, Tacoma, Washington, has been ordered by a judge to pay more than $3.2 million to victims he wronged plus $179,000 in penalties for violating the Consumer Protection Act.
Kaiser was the first foreclosure “rescuer” to be tried by the Attorney General’s Consumer Protection Division, which works to enforce a fair marketplace for consumers and businesses.
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Eric Jason Sunsdahl, 34, Rosemount, Minnesota has been charged with seven counts of bank fraud, seven counts of false statements on loan applications and one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Sunsdahl‘s indictment alleges that from 2004 through 2007, he fraudulently obtained mortgages and funds from Bremer Bank by submitting false and fraudulent loan applications and
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Gregory S. Chew, 41, Waynesville, Ohio, has been indicted by a federal grand jury on one count of money laundering and 24 counts of illegally structuring currency transactions in connection with a mortgage fraud scheme.
According to court documents, Chew, doing business under the names RB, Inc., and Continue Reading...
Larry Jason Somera, West Linn, Oregon, has been ordered, in an ongoing effort to better protect Oregon mortgage borrowers from fraud, by the Department of Consumer and Business Services, to cease and desist permanently from the mortgage lending industry after he pleaded guilty in Multnomah County Court to one count of forgery. Somera agreed to sign the state’s order as
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