Ten individuals on the East Coast were indicted on 18 counts in a mortgage fraud and identity fraud scheme allegedly involving 180 properties in Philadelphia, the majority of which will fall into foreclosure.
The 18-count indictment charging 10 individuals in a massive mortgage fraud and identity fraud scheme. The fraud involved nearly 180 properties in Philadelphia, the vast majority of which will fall into foreclosure. The government and private mortgage lenders are at risk of losing over $11,000,000 because of the fraud.
Self-described real estate investor, Mahn Huu Doan, a/k/a “Bruce Doan,” hit on a scheme to try to make money. He and his associates would purchase houses using false or borrowed identities. Doan managed to buy these houses with government insured loans.
With the help of Trung Tam Dang, Doan made up false paper work – including false bank records, false W-2 forms, and false pay stubs – which he used to apply for these mortgages. Most of the mortgages came from a company called Encore Mortgage Services, Inc., which was owned by Vincent Sirolli.
Participating in and profiting from the fraud, Sirolli and his employees – Dana Siciliano, a loan officer; June Kodiak, a loan originator; and Keith Lyon, the company’s Chief Operating Officer – processed the applications and got Doan the money he needed.
The scheme worked, in part, because Ciriaco Gatta, a/k/a “Jack Gatta,” an appraiser, fraudulently inflated the appraisals on the houses. Those fraudulent appraisals allowed Doan, Sirolli, and the others to wring excess profits from the deals, profits the schemers used to keep the fraud going and to line their own pockets.
At the closings on the deals, settlement agents Mary Diantonio and Anthony Giampietro prepared paperwork that falsely described the flow of money in the deals, thereby hiding the fraud from mortgage lenders and the government. Zu-Yun Kim, a/k/a “Andy Kim,” an associate of Doan’s, often posed as a buyer or seller at the closings, signing paper work using a false identity.
The defendants planned to hold on to the houses they purchased for a short time, and then re-sell or “flip” them for a profit. They were unable. Still, they had to pay the mortgages on the houses. They failed. As a result, nearly all of the houses will go into foreclosure.
“Foreclosures affect everyone in Philadelphia,” Meehan stated. “A recent study by The Reinvestment Fund estimates that, for every foreclosure within a block of your house and within a year, your house will lose 1% of its value.” Meehan went on, “You can therefore imagine the impact that 180 foreclosures will have on our neighborhoods. If we are to keep our neighborhoods intact, we must stop the kind of fraud that happened here.”
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