Here is yet another example of a mortgage fraud scheme.
On February 6, 2009, Colorado real estate agent Linda Edwards was sentenced to 41 months in prison, ordered to pay $646,521 in restitution, and forfeit $139,854 for wire fraud, false statements, and false use of a Social Security number. Ms. Edwards was indicted in February 2005 and found guilty following a jury trial in July 2008.
According to the criminal indictment, Ms. Edwards, aided and abetted by others, devised a scheme to defraud and to obtain money and property by means of fraudulent representations and promises from mortgage companies that funded federally insured loans. As part of the scheme, Ms. Edwards, and others working with her, located buyers to buy residences, but were unable to qualify for a mortgage using the buyers’ accurate credit history, income and employment, and/or other financial information.
Ms. Edwards, and others working with her, would assist the buyers who could not legitimately qualify for an FHA-insured mortgage by: (i) obtaining a false Social Security number for the buyer, which would conceal the buyer’s unfavorable credit history; (ii) creating false W-2s or other income documents, which would inflate or wholly create income that would purportedly be available for the buyer to make mortgage payments; (iii) creating false verifications of rent (“VOR”) or employment (“VOE”) to support false information about the buyer; (iv) creating false alternate credit letters, which would create an appearance that the buyer had a history of paying debts timely; and (v) creating false “gift letters,” which falsely stated that the buyer had an appropriate source of funds for the down payment, and/or other false financial information.
Some people never cease to amaze me with the lengths they will go to to make a few dollars.
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