Archives For Miscellaneous

Dianna Woods, 60, Citrus Heights, California, was sentenced to three years in prison for four counts of making false statements on loan applications.

According to evidence presented at her four-day trial in December 2016, Woods was a licensed real estate salesperson who worked at a company called VLD Realty, doing business as Trade House USA, in the Sacramento area. VLD built and sold houses in residential developments in Sacramento, Carmichael, and Copperopolis, Caifornia. As the housing market began to weaken from 2006 through 2008, VLD sought to sell the houses by offering money to buyers in the form of paying the down payment or giving the buyers money after the transaction, neither of which was disclosed to the lenders.

For her part, Woods purchased two houses based on the undisclosed kickbacks. Further, for the purpose of obtaining mortgage loans to purchase the properties, Woods also signed and submitted loan applications and other documents that contained false statements as to Woods’s income, employment, assets, the purpose of the property, the sales price, and whether the down payment was borrowed. Woods also assisted another buyer in making false statements to the lenders to get loans for the purchase of two properties in the housing developments and falsely verified his employment. The banks suffered nearly $2 million in losses with respect to fraudulent transactions in which Woods was involved.

Woods was sentenced by Senior U.S. District Judge William B. Shubb. The sentence was announced by U.S. Attorney Phillip A. Talbert and the case was the product of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Shelley Weger and Todd Pickles prosecuted the case.

An indictment in a recent SBA case outlines a fraud for commission scheme that could easily occur in mortgage lending.

Jocelyn J. Brown, 59, San Diego, California, a former loan broker for the now-defunct La Jolla Bank, was indicted by a federal grand jury on charges that she paid kickbacks to the bank’s vice president and Small Business Administration lending department manager.

According to the indictment, Brown paid the bribes in return for the banker’s assurance that the loans Brown referred would be approved and funded, and, more importantly, that Brown’s commissions would keep on flowing. Brown allegedly collected tens of thousands of dollars in referral fees from La Jolla Bank, and kicked back a portion to the bank manager, in cash, every time she was paid, the indictment said. Continue Reading…

Mark Yaffe, 55, Tampa, Florida, has pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud admitting his role in misrepresenting the extent of company collateral to Sovereign Bank in order to borrow $35 million.

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Johnny Gutierrez, 50, Stafford, Virginia, a former loan officer at the Export-Import Bank of the United States pleaded guilty in federal court for accepting more than $78,000 in bribes in return for recommending the approval of unqualified loan applications to the bank, among other misconduct.

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Mario Coniglione, 51, Staten Island, New York, was sentenced by Monmouth County Superior Court Judge Anthony J. Mellaci, Jr. to seven years in a New Jersey state prison for stealing more than  $187,000 from a pair of homeowners over a 33 month period.

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Ronald Benjamin, 49, Los Angeles, California, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Wiley Y. Daniel to serve 14 months in federal prison for wire fraud and aiding and abetting in providing materially false information to lenders to procure loans.

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Kenneth Manuel Martin, 66, formerly of Modesto, California, pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud in connection with a Guatemalan real estate scheme wherein he told investors that their money would be used to fund loans and would be secured by promissory notes recorded against the property.

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Jeffery Allen Gardner, 61, Hopkins, Minnesota, and Stuart Alan Voigt, 66, Apple Valley, Minnesota, have been indicted and charged with conspiring to defraud individuals and financial institutions, bank fraud and making a false statement in a loan application.

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Abbe Edelman, 51, Livingston, New Jersey, was sentenced to 135 months in prison for running a real estate investment scheme that bilked victims out of more than $5 million.

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Ivan Levy, 54, Boynton Beach, Florida, has been arrested for his alleged involvement in an advance fee loan scheme. Levy was charged with nine counts of collecting advanced fees as a loan broker, six counts of grand theft and three counts of petit theft.

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