Mortgage Fraud: NJ Developer, Attorney Admit Swindling Lenders Out Of $3.5M

A New Jersey real estate developer and a lawyer admitted working a multi-layered mortgage loan fraud that price tag financial institutions a lot more than $3.5 million in losses, federal authorities reported.

Developer Victor Santos, 63, of Watchung, paid out stand-in “straw” purchasers $5,000 every single to initially order a dozen homes in Newark and then safe tenants to lease them, U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger mentioned.

A group of conspirators together with him and attorney Fausto Simoes, 69, of Millington, protected the costs — like expenses and mortgage loan payments, the U.S. attorney stated.

“Santos, Simoes, and others also caused the submission of fraudulent and phony loan apps and files to the mortgage loan provider,” Sellinger claimed.

“Applying the identification and credit rating of these straw prospective buyers permitted Santos, Simoes, and their conspirators to conceal their identities from the lender as the actual purchasers of the qualities,” he explained.

“Simoes conducted the closings of 10 of the fraudulent transactions,” Sellinger explained, incorporating that the attorney “aided perpetuate the fraud by falsely reporting that the straw buyers had been delivering the hard cash required at closing when, in simple fact, Simoes been given those funds from a shell enterprise controlled by Santos and one more conspirator.

“For several transactions, Simoes also failed to disclose to the lender that the shell business controlled by Santos and a different conspirator would receive a considerable payout from the bank loan proceeds,” he added.

“Soon after the houses had been acquired, Santos and his conspirators broke their guarantees to spend the mortgages,” Sellinger claimed. “The straw potential buyers, in whose names the mortgages were being acquired and consequently have been accountable for the payments, did not have sufficient funds to fork out the fraudulently obtained mortgages and defaulted.”

The loan provider, Fannie Mae, and insurers lost much more than $3.5 million, he mentioned.

Rather than chance the effects of a demo, Santos and Simoes took specials from the federal government, as did two other conspirators, Sellinger stated.

Each individual pleaded responsible by videoconference with U.S. District Judge Michael A. Shipp in Trenton to conspiracy to commit lender fraud. The judge scheduled sentencing for Santos for April 12, 2023, and for Simoes the following working day. The other two unknown confessed conspirators are awaiting sentencing.

Sellinger credited specific agents of the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s Business of Inspector Common and the FBI with the investigation main to the responsible pleas, secured by Special Assistant U.S. Lawyers Charlie Divine and Kevin DiGregory of the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s Place of work of Inspector Normal, who were being assigned to his Financial Crimes Unit in Newark.

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