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Created on Wednesday, 24 August 2011 20:25

Mortgage Fraudsters Put In a Guilty Plea

It must be said that with institutions and homeowners becoming vigilant, there is no safe place for fraudsters in the mortgage industry.

This explains the recent increases in mortgage scams that have been uncovered and the number of perpetrators that have been put before the legal system to be punished.

The case of Juan Carlos Gonzalez has resurfaced after the owner of Premier Title Group, Cynthia Darlene Strickland who has been put before court pleaded guilty to charges of mortgage fraud.

In the full facts of the case, Barry Westergom, an appraiser, is said to have been contracted by Gonzalez to appraise residential homes he Gonzalez was scheduled to buy. According to the case file, Westergom appraised the homes far more than the homes were actually worth.

With the inflated appraisal forms from Westergom and other forged documents, Gonzalez succeeded in getting mortgage companies and lenders to give out an amount of $685,409.98 as home loans through Strickland’s title holding company.

After being put before court, Gonzalez and Westergom pleaded guilty for mortgage fraud and were handed 7 and 4 year respective jail terms.

On her part, Strickland is accused of failing to notify banks even though she was very much aware of the fact that Gonzalez had in his possession, a lower buying price for the homes and an inflated selling price which had been prepared for potential buyers.

Strickland acting as the closing agent for Gonzalez, ignored this fraudulent practice and went ahead to prepare closing statements for the property. On the closing statements, Strickland used the inflated appraisal price instead of the correct price of the property. Based on the information provided by Strickland, the bank’s granted the loans.

Strickland using her role as the closing agent for the property misinformed the banks, clearly stating that all procedures and conditions required for the deal to hold had been met by the parties involved when in actual sense, none of the conditions stated by her had been met.

Once the loan amount was released, Strickland transferred $155,000 into the accounts of Gonzalez.

With this strong evidence backing up the claim of the prosecution, Strickland had no choice than to put in a guilty plea and hope for a reduced sentence. She has however, agreed to pay back her share of the funds obtained from the fraudulent transaction.