February 2nd, 2012 at 10:21am
Robinson Dinh Nguyen, formerly a real estate agent with the defunct and disgraced Crisp & Cole Associates, has been sentenced to prison for 21 months and ordered to pay $433,000 in restitution. The California Department of Real Estate (DRE) revoked his license in 2008.
In his guilty plea, Nguyen, 31, admitted that he had conspired with others to submit fraudulent loan documentation and used straw buyers in order to obtain mortgage loans from financial institutions (mortgage fraud, loan fraud). Many were 100% loans and others were refis, the purpose of which was to skim equity and then let the homes fall into foreclosure. The lenders, of course, lost millions.
The defendants who have already pleaded guilty are Kevin Sluga, Crisp & Cole’s CPA; Jerald Teixeira and Christopher Stovall, former loan officers for Tower Lending; Megan Balod; and Leslie Sluga. Those defendants still awaiting trial are David Marshall Crisp, Carlyle Lee Cole, Julie Dianne Farmer, Sneha Ramesh Mohammadi, Jayson Peter Costa, Jeriel Salinas, Michael Angelo Munoz, Jennifer Anne Crisp, and Caleb Lee Cole.
Read the original article in the Central Valley Business Times.
January 30th, 2012 at 9:45am
Straw buyers are integral players in mortgage fraud. Criminals who devise schemes are dependent on the straw buyer to “rent” his or her good credit, in exchange for what is no less than a bribe, in order to defaud lenders.
It is unfortunate that the justice system in most cases looks at straw buyers as non-essential players and often trades their testimony for no jail time in order to catch the operators of the schemes. This has certainly been true in California.
A case in Alabama highlights that it is possible to get critical testimony from straw buyers and still make them pay for their crimes. Rodger A. Gulledge testified against his ex-wife Melissa Gulledge and ringleader Lance A. Collins in a sophisticated mortgage fraud case in which the participants defrauded banks and the retirees who unwittingly invested in their scheme (elder financial abuse, real estate investment fraud). Collins pleaded guilty, and for his testimony, Rodger Gulledge received a sentence of one year and 10 months.
It’s time for prosecutors in California to treat straw buyers with the same seriousness as their colleagues in Alabama.
Read the original article in AL.com.
January 27th, 2012 at 9:43am
James Delbert McConville, the subject of many posts in the California Real Estate Fraud Report, has pleaded guilty in Oakland federal court to money laundering and conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud.
McConville was accused by prosecutors of setting up an elaborate network including a Citibank employee, an escrow officer, a Realtor and a notary public. He also convinced dozens of people to act as straw buyers, using their good credit and a bribe of $10,000 to encourage their participation.
The properties McConville purchased were located all across California. San Diego appraiser Todd Lackner referred to the schemes as “sterotypic mortgage fraud.”
Although he has promised to pay restitution, McConville’s attorney, Sara Rief, claims her client is broke. This is most likely due to the large amount of money his crimes afforded him to spend on himself.
Read the original article in KGTV San Diego.
January 20th, 2012 at 8:31am
Raymond Foakes, 48, once president of the Sonoma Hells Angels, is going to spend up to five years and 10 months in prison for his participation in a mortgage fraud scheme.
Foakes signed his name to what he knew were fraudulent loan documents so that he could purchase a home that was used as a marijuana grow house. He was apparently one of at least eight persons recruited by loan officer Jacob Moynihan to act as straw buyers during 2006 and 2007. Moynihan and his father Gerald Moynihan are two of the other defendants.
In addition to his prison sentence, Foakes must be pay restitution and his contact with other Hells Angels members will be limited when he gets out of prison.
Read the original article in the Santa Rosa Press Democrat.
January 12th, 2012 at 12:15pm
In the ongoing investigation into a criminal conspiracy to defraud banks, U.S. Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner announced indictments of four more defendants by a federal grand jury.
Yevgeniy Charikov, 40, of West Sacramento; Vitaliy Tuzman, 40, of Citrus Heights; Nadia Talybov, 30, of Antelope; and Juliet Romanishin, 30, of West Sacramento have been charged with mail fraud. Charikov, a real estate agent, and Tuzman, one of the straw buyers, have also been charged with money laundering.
These are the allegations: Charikov assisted in purchasing the homes, then reselling them to straw buyers at inflated prices. The straw buyers’ income was inflated on loan applications and they falsely stated the homes were to be their primary residences (loan fraud, mortgage fraud). Romanishin, the loan officer and also the wife of Charikov, approved the loans. Talybov was one of the straw buyers. All the properties were allowed to go into default and foreclosure after the defendants distributed the proceeds among themselves.
Read the original article in Mortgage Daily.
December 13th, 2011 at 7:55am
Sergey Shchirskiy, Khadzhimurad Babatov and Roman Malakhov are the latest in a group of Russian immigrants who have been charged in a large conspiracy to defraud lenders in theSacramentoarea (loan fraud, mortgage fraud).
Tax preparer Vera Kuzmenko, whose alleged involvement has been noted in earlier posts in the California Real Estate Fraud Report, is accused along with Shchirskiy of recruiting straw buyers to purchase homes, taking out home equity loans against the properties and then allowing them to go into foreclosure. More than 45 people have been indicted so far and the losses to lenders are in excess of $16 million.
Shchirskiy, who has been charged with mail fraud and wire fraud, was convicted of extortion in 2005 after burning a Mercedes Benz stolen from an auto body shop after the owner refused to pay $10,000 for its return.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven Lapham is the prosecutor and the case is being heard by U.S. Magistrate Kendall Newman.
Read the original article in the Sacramento Bee.
November 10th, 2011 at 12:39pm
A joint investigation by the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the Internal Revenue Service and the FBI into a large fraud in the Sacramento area has resulted in 25 indictments over the past six months, mostly of persons of Russian background.
U.S. Attorney Benjamin Wagner stated that First Franklin, a now-defunct subprime lender that was purchased by Bank of America, was the target of $16 million in fraudulent loans used by the group to buy several dozen homes.
Some of the defendants, all of whom have pleaded not guilty, are relatives or friends of members of Bethany Slavic Missionary Church, located on Jackson Road. They are accused of recruiting straw buyers, helping falsify the straw buyers’ income in order to qualify for loans (loan fraud, mortgage fraud). Prosecutors charge that the defendants additionally inflated the value of the homes by submitting phony construction invoices for repairs and improvements.
Facing charges are Vera Zhiry, Vera Kuzmenko, Pyotr Bondaruk, the son of Bethany’s co-founder and head pastor, Adam Bondaruk, Peter Kuzmenko, Nadia Kuzmenko, real estate broker Aaron New, Sergey Blizenko, Veniamin Markevich and Edward Shevtsov. The prosecutor is Assistant U.S. Attorney R. Steven Lapham.
Read the original article in the Sacramento Bee. Additional information can be found on the federal Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force, StopFraud.gov.
November 3rd, 2011 at 9:17pm
The California City Police Department operates with a small staff of 20. Yet this group of extraordinarily talented and dedicated professionals took a referral on what appeared to initially be a minor identity theft case and dug deeper until their investigation bore fruit in the form of five arrests.
Those arrested were appraiser Nathaniel Acree, 65, of Long Beach; broker Jay Langer, 51, of San Juan Capistrano; Khalid Malik Abdul Ali, 60, of California City; Angie Cachu, 44, of Orange; and notary Elizabeth Torres, 28, of Santa Ana. Their scheme was one familiar to readers of the California Real Estate Fraud Report: purchase properties at inflated appraisal values, skim the phony equity off the top and use straw buyers to purchase the inflated-value homes.
Three reserve officers for California City performed much of the investigative work: Reserve Officer Michael Katz, Reserve Officer Chris Christopher (now deceased), and Sgt. Jeff Takeda.
The case is being prosecuted by Kern County Deputy District Attorney Gordon Isen. The case included the assistance of the investigative arm of the Orange County District Attorney’s Office and the US Postal Service.
Read the original article in the Bakersfield Californian.
November 3rd, 2011 at 8:58pm
Six people have been indicted by a federal grand jury for mail fraud in relation to a mortgage fraud scam.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Temika Reed, 31, a straw buyer, bought seven houses in Solano County between October 2006 and January 2007, telling the lenders in each case that the loan was to purchase a home that would serve as her primary residence. Her co-defendants are also charged with mail fraud; their role was to falsify Reed’s income and employment history. They are Buena Marshall, 65, and Jake Weathers, 35, of Sacramento; Deborah Loudermilk, 53, and Kadest Harris, 57, of Suisun City; and Reginald Dodson Sr., 40, of Tracy.
Reed’s pay for acting as a straw buyer was the proceeds from getting inflated appraisals for the homes as well as falsifying repair issues.
Read the original article in the Silicon Valley Mercury News.
October 6th, 2011 at 8:55am
Six peope in the Sacramento area have been indicted by a federal grand jury for conspiring to commit mortgage fraud.
Angela Shavlovsky, 52, is accused of finding straw buyers to submit fraudulent loan applications (loan fraud). Alexander Kokhanets, 38; Boris Murzak, 40; Zinaida Murzak, 40; and Vitaliy Tuzman, 31, are accused of selling homes at inflated prices by falsifying loan improvement and repair documents.
Losses to the lenders are estimated to be just under $2 million.
Read the original article in the Sacramento Bee.
