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Busted-Largest Mortgage Fraud Ring in Fairfax County

After a two year investigation the FBI and Fairfax County (VA) officials have finally unraveled a $100 million dollar mortgage fraud case.

"According to the federal indictment, real estate agents Ruben Rojas, 30, and his sister-in-law, Litcia Linares, 32, organized the fraudulent transactions, along with Rojas' sister, 28-year-old Lourdes Rojas Almanza, a loan officer, and his brother, Jaime Rojas."

Many of us who worked in the Springfield (VA) area during the "hot" market were familiar with the names of those who were named in the federal indictment. The Rojas group was involved in buying and selling a significant percentage of the older homes in Springfield. In some cases the homes "flipped" from a $400,000 one story home to a $1,000,000 mansion before the new home was even built.

The aftermath of the flipping scheme can be seen in the foreclosures and short sales that line the streets of once solid older Springfield neighborhoods.

You can read the entire article here:

20 Arrested in Fairfax Mortgage Fraud Bust

Posted by Cindy Jones-Northern Virginia Real Estate & Military Relocation Services on 09/24/2009 07:48 PM

Comments (7)

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7 Comments on Busted-Largest Mortgage Fraud Ring in Fairfax County

SEP

that is amazing..I had talked to an FBI agent at one point who told me they were going to be going after people...

Hi Cindy -- While this news always saddens me, I'm glad they can no longer inflict damage on others and I hope they find a very strict judge on the other end.

Konnie-I knew about a year ago from a conversation with a county official that they were putting together the case on this group. I never thought it would actually happen though.

SEP

Chris-you would have to live in the area and see what happened to one of the neighborhoods where this group did a lot of business. If you had asked almost any agent in the area if they thought something questionable was going on they would have said YES. But investigations take time and fortunately in this case there will be some penalty and I would suspect it will be hefty.

Cindy: Those are new name to me. I got to talk to one of the FBI loan fraud guys not too long ago. He said there were in the middle of a huge case. It's hard for me to imagine anyone acting criminal in their job, to a small extent or large. It just blows my mind.

Chris Ann-the operated mostly in Springfield and Falls Church. I know of one person who was involved in a sale with the team who raised a red flag and also helped the strike force look inside some of the homes that were being used as boarding houses. It is a shame that it took so long to shut down their operations.

SEP

Good, I hate it when slime balls get away with this stuff.

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