A federal grand jury has indicted Dema Daiga, age 28, of College Park, Maryland and Oluseun Oshosanya, age 29, of Laurel, Maryland, for wire fraud and aggravated identity theft arising from a scheme to defraud a mortgage lending company of approximately $664,493, announced United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein.  The indictment was returned on December 2, 2009 and unsealed on December 23, 2009 upon the arrests of the defendants.  Daiga is scheduled to have his detention hearing today at 11:30 a.m. and Oshosanya is scheduled to have his initial appearance today at 2:30 p.m.

According to the 12 count indictment, Daiga worked at times as a mortgage loan broker and had assisted with property appraisals.  Oshosanya also worked in the mortgage lending field.  From August to December 16, 2008, the defendants allegedly recruited straw purchasers to apply for mortgages.  These straw purchasers lacked the income and assets to qualify as borrowers or make the monthly mortgage payments.  The defendants allegedly: filled out mortgage loan applications on behalf of the straw purchasers with false information about the straw purchasers’ employment histories, earnings and assets; provided telephone numbers that were under their control to any person calling to confirm the false information regarding the straw purchaser’s employment and earnings; generated fake monthly bank account statements to make it appear that the straw purchasers had sufficient assets to make the down payments, when instead, the defendants paid the down payments; on at least two occasions, used stolen information about another person’s identity to apply for mortgage loans; caused appraisals to be performed that inflated the property values; and instructed the title companies to send a substantial part of the loan proceeds to the defendants, or to businesses that they controlled.

Five of six Baltimore properties purchased under this scheme swiftly went into default, resulting in a loss to a Beltsville mortgage lending company of approximately $664,493.

Both defendants face a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine for wire fraud; and a mandatory minimum sentence of two years in prison for aggravated identity theft in addition to any sentence imposed for the wire fraud.

An indictment is not a finding of guilt.  An individual charged by indictment is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty at some later criminal proceedings. 

United States Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein thanked the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Secret Service for their investigative work.  Mr. Rosenstein commended Assistant United States Attorney Jefferson M. Gray, who is prosecuting the case.