Daily News and Information for the Mortgage Loan Originator
Originator Pleads Guilty to Conspiracy Charges
Monday, March 27, 2006
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CLEVELAND - Gil Gotlieb, age 38, pled guilty to conspiracy before U.S. District Judge Solomon Oliver, Jr., in Cleveland, Ohio, in connection with fraudulent real estate transactions.
The information to which Gotlieb pleaded guilty alleged that he conspired with Raymond A. Delacruz and others to engage in fraudulent real estate transactions during the period from March 2001, through May 2002. Raymond A. Delacruz, age 32, and Laura E. Atkinson, age 56, were charged in a 70-count indictment filed in the Northern District of Ohio in February 2005. Delacruz and Atkinson were arrested then at their current residence in Anaheim, California, and they subsequently appeared in Cleveland for further court proceedings.
On August 30, 2005, Delacruz appeared before Judge Patricia A. Gaughan and pled guilty to a total of 12 counts, including 3 bank fraud offenses, 7 mail fraud charges, and 2 money laundering offenses. On that same date, Laura Atkinson also pled guilty to a total of 10 counts of the indictment, including 3 bank fraud offenses and 7 mail fraud charges. On January 20, 2006, Judge Gaughan sentenced Delacruz to 27 months in custody followed by 3 years of supervised release. Atkinson was sentenced to 5 months in custody, 5 months of home confinement with electronic monitoring, and 3 years of supervised release.
The indictment against Delacruz and Atkinson alleged that they and others engaged in numerous fraudulent real estate transactions, commonly known as property "flipping" whereby properties were purchased for their true market value and, within a very short time frame, usually 90 days or less, the property was resold at a substantially higher price. Delacruz and others were able to accomplish such property "flips" by creating false purchase agreements, false rental agreements, and obtaining false appraisals which artificially and fraudulently inflated the true values of those properties. Delacruz and others were also charged with causing fraudulent loan applications to be submitted to prospective lenders in order to obtain financing for the purchasers of those properties. Those fraudulent loan applications often included false purchase price which was inflated to cover the down payment and closing costs, a false appraisal which inflated the true value of the property by as much as $50,000, a false second mortgage by which Delacruz would fraudulently obtain funds from the transactions, false leases and rental agreements which concealed the true income of the property, a false representation that the transaction was a refinance when it was actually a purchase, concealment of the true owner of the property, falsified down payment by the buyer, and false verification of funds on deposit by the buyer.
Two Arrested After Closing Table Sting A borrower allegedly using the stolen identity of a disabled retiree from Florida, attended a closing on a million dollar mortgage refinance she intended to walk away from the closing table with approximately $100,000 in cash, she departed in FBI handcuffs.
$37 Million Fraud Lands Mortgage Company Owner In Jail Gerald P. Small, III who owned or controlled two mortgage companies, Amerifunding and 20th Century Mortgage, Inc. was sentenced to 101 months in prison and ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $37 Million for his participation in a fraud scheme that used the identities of unsuspecting applicants that applied for jobs in his companies.
Boss Takes Down Company and Employees in Fraud Scam On the surface it appeared Mark Young managed a successful mortgage company. Over a period of 2 years he and his small staff originated and closed close to 250 loans. However, many of these loans were closed using false loan packages. Recently, Mr. Young was sentenced to over 6 years in prison and many of his employees were convicted of various charges for their participation.
State Allows Felon to Originate Loans To say Thomas Sands isn’t exactly the poster boy for mortgage brokers would be like saying Michael Jackson isn’t exactly Babysitter of the Year. This is a man who has pleaded guilty and served time for stealing from and cheating clients. On top of that, Sands has a long history of declaring bankruptcy and repeatedly defaulting on his own home loans.
Loan Officer Charged In $10 Million Fraud Scheme Nancy Booth, also known as Nancy Campbell, a loan processor and loan officer for a mortgage brokerage firm, and Michael D. Goodson allegedly conspired beginning in March 2003 to devise and participate in a mortgage fraud scheme in which they provided false and fraudulent information to a lending institution to secure loans for straw purchasers to purchase homes and telling the straw borrowers they were investing in real estate to be managed by a property management company.
Ameriquest AE Sentenced in $20 Million Fraud Scheme Avonda Nicodemus, a former account executive at Ameriquest Mortgage and Peggy Snodgrass, who operated a real estate appraisal business were sentenced for their participation in a mortgage fraud scheme that encompassed 289 fraudulent loans totaling $19.6 million, with a total actual loss of approximately $11.8 million for the financial institutions that were defrauded.
Loan Officer, Real Estate Agent Jailed for Fraud and Forgery A real estate agent and a loan officer were sentenced for their participation in a fraud scheme that preyed upon illegal aliens. The scheme involved providing false and forged documents that were used to hide the applicants true identities and credit histories.
Originators Steal Over $1 Million in Leads From Former Employer Neal Elbaum and Ralph Donza have been arrested and charged with stealing over $1 Million in mortgage leads from their former employer Old Merchants Mortgage with help from a current employee, Carlos Orellano. The pair allegedly wanted the leads to originate loans for their newly formed mortgage company.
Fake Mortgage Broker Steals Clients' Identities Henry Aguilar is accused of posing as a mortgage broker, allegedly to obtain would be victims personal information, supplied on their applications. It is further alleged that Aguilar's wife a Notary Public would then help him forge document to obtain loans, and buy and sell properties in their unsuspecting victim's names.
