In the following press release United States Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan and the Mortgage Fraud Task Force announced today, April 10, 2008, that on April 8, 2008 and on April 9, 2008 two individuals pleaded guilty in federal court to mortgage fraud charges.

Aaron Thompson, age 32, of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Randy Carretta, age 44, of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, pleaded guilty to one count each of Participating in a Wire Fraud Conspiracy before United States District Court Judge Joy Flowers Conti and Chief United States District Court Judge Donetta Ambrose, respectively.

In connection with the guilty plea of Thompson, Assistant United States Attorney Brendan T. Conway advised the court that Leon Truskowski and Colleen Chiavetta operated a mortgage broker business, located in Pittsburgh’s West End, called People’s Home Mortgage that assisted borrowers in obtaining financing to purchase homes. Thompson was employed by People’s Home Mortgage, and he, with the assistance of other members of the conspiracy, submitted loan applications on behalf of borrowers that contained material misrepresentations about the borrowers’ financial condition. Thompson and his co-conspirators also submitted false documents in connection with the loan applications, including but not limited to, appraisals that inflated the true value of the properties, appraisals that represented that they were prepared by licensed appraisers when they were really prepared by unlicensed appraisers, and employment and income verification documents that misrepresented the borrowers’ employment status and overstated the borrowers’ income. In addition, the conspirators arranged for the payments associated with the loan transactions to be distributed contrary to the representations to the lender about how the loan proceeds would be distributed, and they inflated sales prices so that the conspirators could obtain money at the real estate closings.

Thompson also participated in this scheme in that he acted as a buyer and borrower knowing that the loan applications contained misrepresentations and that many of the supporting documents submitted to the lending institutions were fraudulent.

In connection with the guilty plea of Carretta, Assistant United States Attorney Brendan T. Conway advised the Court that Jason Jester and Carretta operated Precision Mortgage, a Carnegie mortgage broker business that assisted borrowers in obtaining financing to purchase homes.

Jester and Carretta submitted loan applications and associated documents knowing that the loan applications contained fraudulent representations about the financial condition of the borrowers and that the documents were fraudulent. The fraudulent documents included, among others, verifications of employment, verifications of deposit, appraisals, pay stubs, and W-2s.

Judge Conti scheduled sentencing for Thompson for September 12, 2008 and Judge Ambrose scheduled sentencing for Carretta for September 5, 2008.

The law provides for a total sentence of 20 years in prison, a fine of $250,000, or both for both defendants. Under the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, the actual sentences imposed are based upon the seriousness of the offenses and the criminal history, if any, of the defendants.

The Mortgage Fraud Task Force conducted the investigation that led to the prosecution of the defendants. The Mortgage Fraud Task Force is comprised of investigators from federal, state and local law enforcement agencies and others involved in the mortgage industry. Federal law enforcement agencies participating in the Mortgage Task Force include the Federal Bureau of Investigation; the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigations; the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development, Office of Inspector General; the United States Postal Inspection Service; and the United States Secret Service. Other Mortgage Fraud Task Force members include the Allegheny County Sheriff’s Office; the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office, Bureau of Consumer Protection; the Pennsylvania Department of Banking; the Pennsylvania Department of State, Bureau of Enforcement and Investigation; and the United States Trustee’s Office.

Mortgage industry members with knowledge of fraudulent activity are encouraged to call the Mortgage Fraud Task Force at (412) 894-7550. Consumers are encouraged to report suspected mortgage fraud by calling the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Consumer Protection Hotline at (800) 441-2555.

In the following press release United States Attorney David E. Nahmias announced that VIRGINIA ROSE NOVRIT, 67, of Hilton Head, South Carolina, CLARENCE LORENZO DAVIS, 68, of Hilton Head, South Carolina, GREGORY JEROME WINGS, JR., 25, of Atlanta, Georgia, OLYMPIA D. AMMONS, 31, of St. Louis, Missouri, and RONALD DENZIL MARTIN, JR., 37, of Lithonia, Georgia, were sentenced this week by United States District Judge Beverly B. Martin on charges of conspiracy, bank fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering related to a multi-million dollar mortgage fraud scheme.

United States Attorney David E. Nahmias said, “These defendants and their co-defendants are responsible for causing millions of dollars in losses to mortgage lenders by artificially inflating the sales prices on million dollar homes and submitting fraudulent loan applications to fund the purchases of these homes. In cooperation with federal, state, and local law enforcement agents, we will continue to vigorously investigate and prosecute mortgage fraud schemes in the metro Atlanta area.”

NOVRIT was sentenced to 3 years, 5 months in prison to be followed by 4 years of supervised release, and ordered to pay $839,585 in restitution. NOVRIT was convicted by a jury on November 26, 2007, after a three week trial.

DAVIS was sentenced to 4 years, 3 months in prison to be followed by 4 years ofsupervised release, and ordered to pay $839,585 in restitution. DAVIS was convicted by the same jury on November 26, 2007.

WINGS was sentenced to 10 years, 2 months in prison to be followed by 4 years of supervised release, and ordered to pay $8,577,845 in restitution. WINGS pleaded guilty on September 7, 2007.

AMMONS was sentenced to 5 years, 3 months in prison to be followed by 4 years of supervised release, and ordered to pay $7,549,044 in restitution. AMMONS pleaded guilty on October 2, 2006.

MARTIN was sentenced to 1 year, 1 day in prison to be followed by 3 years of supervised release, and ordered to pay $423,595 in restitution. MARTIN pleaded guilty on May 16, 2007.

According to United States Attorney Nahmias and the information presented in court: From late 2004 through early 2006, NOVRIT, DAVIS, WINGS, AMMONS, and MARTIN participated in a mortgage fraud scheme that involved millions of dollars in fraudulently inflated mortgage loans being provided to unqualified straw borrowers. The straw borrowers were paid as much as $600,000 per property from fraudulently obtained loan proceeds through shell companies. NOVRIT and DAVIS together obtained mortgage loans totaling more than $4 million within a six month period to purchase eight properties. WINGS obtained mortgage loans totaling over $1.2 million to purchase a single property by providing the lender with false qualifying information. WINGS also recruited a number of other unqualified buyers into the scheme and obtained a share of the fraudulently obtained loan proceeds from those transactions for doing so. AMMONS was a loan originator for “Ace Mortgage Funding,” a national mortgage brokerage firm.

AMMONS brokered fraudulent mortgages totaling over $7 million. MARTIN was paid $75,000 to act as a straw buyer and submit a fraudulent loan application for one property.

Four other defendants have already been sentenced to prison terms in related cases, and five more defendants await sentencing. This case was investigated by Special Agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Assistant United States Attorneys Gale McKenzie, William L. McKinnon, Jr., and Douglas Gilfillan prosecuted the case.

In the following press release R. Alexander Acosta, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Jonathan I. Solomon, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Michael Fithen, Special Agent In Charge, U. S. Secret Service, and Roland H. Maye, Resident Agent In Charge, Office of the Inspector General, Social Security Administration, announced that defendant Marlene Dinnall a/k/a Marlene Henry, Marlene Angela Hall, and Marlene Morris, 48, of Miramar, Florida was sentenced on Friday, May 2, 2008, to 51 months’ imprisonment by United States District Court Judge James I. Cohn. Dinnall was sentenced for her participation on a mortgage and mail and wire fraud scheme that resulted in approximately $1.8 million in fraudulently obtained mortgage loans. At sentencing, the defendant was also ordered to pay restitution to National City Mortgage Company, a lender that suffered actual loss in this case.

According to the court records, Dinnall was a mortgage loan originator with an office in Miami, Florida. She enriched herself by obtaining mortgages from lenders using straw purchasers and submitting false documents, including false loan applications, false employment verification forms, false salary statements, false IRS W-2s, and false bank account statements reflecting high account balances. The defendant also used and caused others to use stolen social security numbers as their personal identification at closings, and participated in the sale of fraudulent identification documents and social security numbers and cards. The defendant also provided false financial documents to an individual, who intended to use the documents to obtain an $800,000 line of credit from a federally insured financial institution.

Mr. Acosta commended the investigative efforts of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Secret Service, and the Office of the Inspector General, Social Security Administration. This case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Laurie E. Rucoba.

A copy of this press release may be found on the website of the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida at http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/fls. Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at http://www.flsd.uscourts.gov or on http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov.

Technical comments about this website can be e-mailed to the Webmaster. PLEASE NOTE: The United States Attorney’s Office does not respond to non-technical inquiries made to this website. If you wish to make a request for information, you may contact our office at 305-961-9001, or you may send a written inquiry to the United States Attorney’s Office, Southern District of Florida, 99 NE 4th Street, Miami, Fl. 33132.

In the following press release Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum today announced that two Hillsborough County men have been convicted of conspiracy to commit racketeering for their involvement in a mortgage fraud scheme. David E. Tuggle, Jr. and Eric S. Steinhauser pleaded guilty today in Polk County and could face up to five years in prison when sentenced in September. As part of the plea agreement, neither man may be employed in the mortgage, title, or real estate industries. The men were prosecuted by the Attorney General’s Office of Statewide Prosecution.

Tuggle, 31, and Steinhauser, 29, were part of a criminal enterprise which submitted fraudulent mortgage loan documents to Argent Mortgage Company through Brandon-based Sunstate Mortgage Company. From 2003 through 2005, Tuggle and Steinhauser submitted more than 300 mortgage loan applications to Argent Mortgage. Of those 300 applications, more than 280 were funded and collectively valued at more than $34 million. Investigators believe the men paid one of their co-conspirators, a former Argent vice president, more than $100,000 for insuring the approval of these fraudulent loans.

Tuggle and Steinhauser are cooperating with authorities in both the pending case against their co-defendants and in a previously filed case. The investigation was a joint effort by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, the Hillsborough County Consumer Protection Agency, and the Office of Statewide Prosecution. Argent has cooperated fully with the investigation.

In the following press release U.S. Attorney Jeffrey A. Taylor, Joseph Persichini, Jr., Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office, C. André Martin, Special Agent in Charge of the Internal Revenue Service - Criminal Investigation, Washington, D.C. Field Office, and Thomas E. Hampton, Commissioner of the District of Columbia’s Department of Insurance, Securities, and Banking announced that a 35-year-old District of Columbia man, Duane McKinney, most recently of 1000 10th Street, NE, Washington, D.C., was found guilty today by a jury in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on charges of fraud, theft, and monetary transactions.

Specifically, McKinney was found guilty of four counts of mail fraud, two counts of wire fraud, three counts of first degree theft, and two counts of monetary transactions. McKinney is scheduled to be sentenced on July 15, 2008, before the Honorable Judge Reggie B. Walton. At sentencing, McKinney faces a likely range of imprisonment of 87 - 108 months under the Federal Sentencing Guidelines.

The government’s evidence at trial established that Duane McKinney obtained title to D.C. and Maryland properties through forged deeds, that is, deeds which purported to be signed by the owners transferring the properties to McKinney or his non-profit business. In fact, the deeds were not signed by the owners; the vast majority of the owners were deceased at the time of the forged and false deeds. McKinney was assisted by Joe D. Liles, who would sign his name to these false deeds as the “notary” falsely stating that he saw the owner sign the deeds as grantor and that the owner “personally appeared before him.” Once the deeds were notarized, McKinney caused the forged and notarized deeds to be filed with the District of Columbia’s Recorder of Deeds and the Prince George’s Circuit Court Land Records. McKinney would then sell the properties as if they belonged to him or his non-profit business and would use the money for his own personal desires. McKinney wrongfully obtained approximately 14 properties, nine of which he sold in order to gain for himself more than $770,000.

Liles, of Upper Marlboro, Maryland, pleaded guilty on January 16, 2008, to the charge of false statements. Liles is scheduled to be sentenced on May 30, 2008 before Judge Walton.

In announcing today’s verdict, U.S. Attorney Taylor, Assistant Director in Charge Persichini, Special Agent in Charge Martin, and Commissioner Hampton commended Special Agents Kelly Bender, FBI, and Ronald D. Williams, IRS, and Fraud Investigator Annette D. Beresford, Department of Insurance, Securities, and Banking. They also noted the assistance of Special Agents Brian Smith (FBI), Lori Garner (IRS), Cindy Buskey (DEA), Aaron Ybarra (ATF), and Deena P. Wilson (Social Security Administration, Office of the Inspector General) and Arlington County Police Department members James O’Daniel and Steven Meinke. In addition, they commended paralegal specialists Melanie Howard and Jeanne Latimore-Brown, legal assistant April Peeler, Kimberly Smith, Litigation Support, Assistant U.S. Attorneys William R. Cowden, William B. Wiegand, Diane Lucas, Judith A. Kidwell, former Assistant U.S. Attorney James Flood, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Virginia Cheatham, who prosecuted the case.

Ray Gibson reports for the Chicago Tribune that Phillip Radmer, a disbarred Berwyn attorney who created phony corporations and invented board members to steal the properties of poor churches, nonprofit groups and businesses, was sentenced on November 20^th 2007 to 12 years in prison.

“Mr. Radmer has ruined a lot of people’s lives in this case,” Cook County Circuit Judge Stanley Sacks is reported to have said in imposing the sentence for theft and forgery.

Representatives of six churches told the judge that the scheme forced them to spend scarce resources to untangle the mess left behind by Radmer over who rightfully owned the properties. In a series of fraudulent real estate deals, Radmer created dozens of phony corporations and individuals in a plot to steal more than 60 vacant lots, a Tribune investigation found last year. He netted at least $655,000 from the sale of four properties owned by the First Presbyterian Church on the city’s South Side.

Assistant Cook County State’s Atty. William Merritt is reported to have called Radmer a “backward Robin Hood.” “He robbed from the poor to give to the rich — himself,” said Merritt, recalling testimony that authorities recovered $100,000 in a house raid. Merritt said Radmer’s scheme had “created havoc” in the manner in which property is sold in Cook County.

Pastors and church leaders said Tuesday they had to hire attorneys and go to court to straighten out their churches’ ownership of the vacant lots. Rev. Gerald Wise told the judge that First Presbyterian had spent “considerable” funds to pay lawyers.

Last week, the church announced it was closing its day-care program, in existence for 42 years, and laying off its 11 teachers because of funding problems.

The Tribune, citing records and interviews, reported last week that Radmer continued his wrongdoing even while in county jail awaiting trial. In September, he arranged the sale of one lot owned by Providence-St. Mel school without the school’s knowledge.

At Radmer’s sentencing, Paul Adams III, the president of the board of trustees of Providence-St. Mel, testified he didn’t know the lot had been sold until he read the Tribune account. Adams said the fraud impacted the school’s plans to use that lot for an expansion. “We’ve been trying to find out who was trying to steal the property, to be perfectly honest,” he told the judge.

Radmer didn’t address the court, but his attorney, Rufus Cook, said Radmer made “a tragic error” in trying to sell the lots. “Was it a dumb thing to do? It certainly was,” said Cook, who contended that Radmer had no criminal intent.

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Ryan Cook reports for the Dayton Daily News that former Springboro football standout W. Brad Lamb began serving a 67-month sentence this month after pleading guilty in federal court to bank fraud, money laundering and filing a false tax return, according to Internal Revenue Service spokeswoman Nancy Hatfield.

Between May 2004 and May 2005, Lamb, 40, of Huntersville, N.C. attempted to obtain more than $1 million in money and property by falsifying loan documents, transferred more than $21,000 from the business to his personal account, and filed a false tax return in 2004 by failing to report about $459,000 of income, according to the charges against him.

Facing up to 43 years in prison, Lamb pleaded guilty and was sentenced on Nov. 15 in U.S. District Court in Charlotte, N.C.

Lamb had worked for a local Nations Title Agency, and in 2000 was promoted by Nations Title Agency and transferred to North Carolina, where he moved with his family.

In 2001 Lamb and two others founded Lighthouse Title Agency, which prepared and executed mortgage closings on home purchases. Two years later the two partners sold their interest in the company to Lamb, according to court documents.

In the following press release Thomas E. Moss United States Attorney for the District of Idaho announced that Charles Drake Cazier, 53, has been sentenced to 24 months in prison for his role in a bank fraud scheme. Cazier and his wife, Carmen Leann Wright, 33, earlier admitted that they made false statements to Mountain West Bank on a loan application.

U.S. District Judge Edward J. Lodge also ordered Cazier to pay a $3,000 fine and $5,539 in restitution. He will serve five years on supervised release following his prison term. Wright was sentenced earlier this months to time served plus three years supervised release and 50 hours of community service. She, too, will be responsible for the restitution.

The false statements occurred in August 1999, after Wright applied to Mountain West Bank in Coeur d’Alene for a loan of $92,150 in order to purchase property in Spirit Lake. Wright overstated her monthly income on the loan application, and with Cazier’s assistance submitted false pay stubs from Spirit Lake Greenhouse, false W-2s for 1997 and 1998, and false federal tax returns for 1997 and 1998. When the bank became suspicious and asked Wright to sign a form allowing them to obtain her filed tax returns, the couple withdrew their application.

The case was investigated by the FBI.

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