George Bussanich Sr., 56, Park Ridge, New Jersey, and his son, George Bussanich Jr., 35, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey, were arrested for engaging in a short sale buy-back scheme that used straw buyers and short sales on two Bergen County, New Jersey, properties to defraud mortgage lenders out of hundreds of thousands of dollar. Each were charged by indictment with one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud and two counts of bank fraud. They are scheduled to appear this afternoon before U.S. Magistrate Judge Cathy L. Waldor in Newark federal court. Continue Reading…
Archives For November 30, 1999
Charise Stone, 46, Ashburn, Virginia, was sentenced to 60 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release for her role in a real estate short sale scheme that included tax and mortgage fraud, and passing fraudulent financial documents. Stone was also ordered to forfeit $721,552, and ordered to pay restitution of $2,441,174 to the victim financial institutions and the IRS.
Stone was found guilty by a federal jury on May 27, 2015 in the short sale scheme. According to court documents, from 2007 to 2010 Stone targeted distressed homeowners who owed more on their mortgage loan than the market value of the home with false promises of financial recovery. Stone acquired distressed homeowners’ properties in her own name or under entities she controlled, made false representations to mortgage lenders in order to induce approval of the short sales, and then re-sold the properties—often the same day or the next—to new buyers at a price above the short sale amount, in violation of agreements made with mortgage lenders. Continue Reading…
Delio Coutinho, 73, loan officer, Woodbridge, New Jersey was sentenced to 36 months in prison for his role in a large-scale short sale mortgage fraud scheme that caused millions of dollars in losses. Coutinho previously pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Susan D. Wigenton to an information charging him with conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Continue Reading…
Jerome Whittington, 65, La Quinta, California; Patricia Torres Zavala, 42, Benicia, California; and, Kathleen Moore, 68, Olympia, Washington have been charged by a federal grand jury for their roles in a variety of fraudulent schemes, including one involving short sales, that victimized at least 20 investors and caused losses of more than $2 million.
The three defendants were charged in a superseding indictment filed on July 8, 2015. The 24-count indictment alleges that they lied to investors in a series of schemes, and then used investor money for personal expenses rather than investing the funds as promised.
Whittington is also charged in a separate case with posing as a former federal prosecutor in a case involving a former DEA agent. Continue Reading…
A federal grand jury returned a 15-count indictment against seven individuals, charging them with conspiracy to commit mail fraud and bank fraud, mail fraud and aiding and abetting, and making false statements to a bank in a mortgage fraud scheme.
Jyoteshna Karan, 43, Modesto, California; Praveen Singh, 36, Modesto, California; and Mahendra Prasad, 53, Fremont, California, were arrested June 26, 2015 at their homes. The remaining defendants each received a summons to appear for arraignment: Phul Singh, 79, Modesto, California; Sunita Singh, 60, Modesto, California, Nani Isaac, 69, Ceres, California; and Martin Bahrami, 42, Turlock, California. Continue Reading…
Richard Michael Colbert, Attorney, Florida, was indicted and charged with conspiracy to commit bank or mail fraud, loan application fraud, theft or embezzlement by a bank officer and money laundering.
The indictment alleges a short sale scheme whereby the owner of property negotiates with the original lender holding the mortgage to sell the property to a person whom the original lender believes is a bona-fide purchase but who is, in fact, a straw buyer. The straw buyer, who is typically paid for used of his personal identification information and who is assured he will have no responsibility for the property or the new mortgage, negotiates a purchase price substantially less than the amount owed the lender. On the date that the short sale closes, a second sale of the property at an inflated price occurs to a second buyer. Continue Reading…
Robert Farrace, 51, Modesto, California, an attorney specializing in real estate transactions, was indicted on three counts of wire fraud in connection with a fraudulent short-sale scheme.
Mario Alvarenga, Rajesh Maddiwar, and Amir Meiri were arrested for participating in a scheme wherein, through an organization that advertised help to those seeking loan modifications to avoid foreclosure, obtained millions of dollars by deceiving homeowners into selling their homes to a company associated with the defendants.
Conan Hayes, 40, Topanga, California, the former co-owner of the clothing brand RVCA is scheduled to be arraigned May 4, 2015, for committing short-sale fraud of his home and causing a total loss of over $500,000 to the lender.
Agustin Simon, 53, Patterson, California, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Lawrence J. O’Neill to 15 months in prison for conspiring to commit bank fraud. Simon was convicted of submitting fraudulent short-sale applications, which caused financial institutions to approve the charge-off of funds for the short-sale of his home.