I just don't get it.  Everyday somebody gets busted to something stupid.  At least that is what it seems like.

OKLAHOMA - Charles Caldwell, Jr., a mortgage broker at United Lending, Brandon L Baum, a licensed real estate agent, and four others were convicted last week by a federal jury of all charges for employing an illegal cash back at closing scheme.

According to the indictment obtained by the Originator Times, "Potential homebuyers represented by Baum were told they could receive substantial funds at the time of closing under the guise of ‘repair costs' which they could use for their personal benefit, if they agreed to purchase homes at an inflated price."

"Once the terms of a purchase had been approved by both the buyer and seller, in many cases [the] sellers' agents would increase the MLS list price for the properties to an amount equal to or above the agreed inflated sales price to avoid detection by lenders and others" the indictment said.

"Brokers at United Lending, including Charles E Caldwell Jr., facililitated the submission of fraudulent loan applications to lenders for buyers who could not qualify to purchase the homes at the artificially inflated prices."

In some cases Baum and Caldwell would provide temporary loans to buyers represented by Baum for down-payments with the understanding they would be reimbursed at closing from the purported remodeling or repair costs.

At closing, the title companies were directed by Baum, sellers' agents and the sellers to issue checks from the sales proceeds to various entities for purported remodeling, repair costs, marketing service fees or other fees.

The four other defendants that were involved it the scheme were; Joseph Therrien, Teresa Therrien, Rusty Therrien, and Gayle Caldwell.

Commercial Mortgage, Commercial Purchase Loan, Commercial Refinance Loan, Residential Mortgage, Residential Purchase Loan, Residential Refinance Loan