Thaindian News

MIAMI, FLORIDA (BNO NEWS) – Thirteen individuals were indicted for a mortgage fraud in Florida, prosecutors said Monday.

Greta Medina 26, of Coral Gables, Florida, and other co-conspirators identified eleven properties to be used to defraud Wells Fargo Bank into issuing $16.9 million in mortgage loans.

Medina and others paid Ricardo Estrada, 39, of Miami, Florida, a Wells Fargo loan officer, to facilitate the approval of the fraudulent loan applications at Wells Fargo. Medina also paid the title agent to create fraudulent closing documents and to release the lender’s proceeds early to allow the straw purchasers to use the lender’s money to make deposits on the properties and pay their closing costs.

The conspirators recruited straw buyers to purchase the properties. The recruiters, including Dania Arguelles, 44, Fernanda Abrea, 50, Obed Hernandez, 38, all of Miami, Florida, and Martin Mere, 42, of Port St. Lucie, Florida, recruited straw buyers Nestor Collantes, 59, Alfonso Velasco, 55, Yohamel Caballero, 26, Ana Aviles, 45, Leismy Barcia, 33, all from Miami, Florida, and Adan Vasquez, 40, of Houston, Texas, to submit fraudulent loan applications to the lender. The loan applications included false information about the straw buyers’ salaries and deposits, to create the impression that the straw buyers could qualify for loans in excess of one million dollars for each property.

The individuals diverted millions in loan proceeds by skimming the difference between the inflated purchase price and the price actually paid to the seller for the property. Medina, Arguelles, Velasco, Abrea, and Christian Gomez, 37, of West New York, New Jersey received loan proceeds from the title company and paid off their co-conspirators, including the title agent, the loan officer, the recruiters, and the straw buyers. In some instances, they stripped more money out of the properties by taking out home equity lines of credit. The straw buyers eventually defaulted on the loans, causing each of the properties to go into foreclosure and resulting in estimated losses to the lender of more than $9.7 million.

The superseding indictment includes charges of conspiracy to commit bank fraud, substantive bank fraud and receipt of commissions and gifts for procuring loans. The bank fraud and receipt offenses carry a maximum sentence of 30 years’ imprisonment.

Margaret Roberts, the real estate broker who previously pled guilty, negotiated the purchases with the sellers.