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Texas Mortgage Broker Goes Down for Fraud
This Thursday a mortgage broker from San Antonio, TX pleaded guilty money laundering in a fifty-million dollar mortgage fraud scheme. We here at Loansafe.org report about mortgage fraud and real estate scams almost daily as the cases keep rounding up. The FBI, the Justice Department, state AGs, and the mortgage fraud task force have been doing an excellent job putting an end to these unscrupulous practices around the nation.
Ledale Lashette Coles, 36, signed a plea deal back in 2008 to the scheme, and this Thursday plead guilty before Judge John Primomo. Coles ran a company called Supreme Mortgage Group LLC that was used as just one of the entities involved in this massive mortgage fraud scheme. The scam was primarily blamed first on Robert Brooks from Dallas, TX.
Brooks, among his wife, Cheryl, are two out of 22 people that were indicted back in June for their part in the scheme. Each defendant in San Antonio took part in the “flipping” scam that caused over fifty-million dollars in loans to go into default.
Back on June 17th, the Justice department, the FBI, and the IRS named this investigation “Operation Stolen Dreams.”
In the indictment it stated that from May 17, 2005, through February 21, 2008, Robert purchased properties that were priced at the current market value, and later used “straw buyers” to buy the homes at inflated prices. It’s said he offered each straw buyer between $10-25k.
Other defendants include lawyer Richard Howard, former Sheriff’s Deputy George Autobee, a real estate agent out of San Antonio, mortgage processors, and escrow and title officers. It took quite a few individuals to orchestrate a scheme this large.
Brooks managed to get mortgages for the straw buyers using false information and then a year or so later let the properties go into default. According to additional indictment charges, Brook’s scheme could not be completed without assistance from other people in the mortgage industry, including appraisers, title officers, escrow officers, and mortgage processors who helped submit all of the false documentation and information to the banks.
Additional records show that Coles helped with more than a million dollars in fraudulent loans. Coles is now is facing up to 10 years in prison and is to be sentenced December 1 before US District Xavier Rodriguez.
By Evan Bedard on October 1, 2010 www.Loan-Safe.org
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