On Q Professional Investigations

ELKINS, WV—United States Attorney William J. Ihlenfeld, II announced that a former branch manager from Huntington National Bank was sentenced to 37 months in prison for stealing nearly $250,000 from accounts belonging to elderly customers.

Deborah D. Radcliff, age 51, of Weston, West Virginia, was sentenced to over three years in prison by Chief Judge John Preston Bailey and was also ordered to repay the victims of her crime. Judge Bailey made a specific finding that Radcliff had methodically selected her victims due to their age. Radcliff had previously entered guilty pleas to the felony offenses of embezzlement by a bank employee and one count of structuring.

“Ms. Radcliff preyed upon her most vulnerable customers at the bank in order to line her own pockets,” said Ihlenfeld. “Anyone who targets the elderly in a scheme like this deserves a significant punishment like the one imposed by the court.”

During the period July 1, 2011, to November 5, 2012, while serving as the branch manager of Huntington Bank in Weston, Radcliff embezzled and misapplied $247,249.88 from customers’ accounts and engaged in acts of structuring to cause the bank to fail to file a Currency Transaction Report for currency transactions of $10,000 or more. To execute the scheme, Radcliff utilized her position as branch manager to issue or direct to be issued cashier’s checks from funds withdrawn from customer accounts issued in the name of the customer. Radcliff would then take possession of the cashier’s check, forge the name of the depositor and cash the checks for her own personal benefit. The ages of the alleged victims ranged from 56 to 90 years, with all but one alleged victim 64 years or older.

Radcliff, who is free on bond, will report to federal prison in February.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney John C. Parr and investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Internal Revenue Service, with cooperation from the Huntington National Bank’s Corporate Security Office.
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Deirdre M. Daly, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, announced that Peter Pinto, 38, of East Quogue, New York, was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Stefan R. Underhill in Bridgeport to 48 months of imprisonment, followed by five years of supervised release, for his role in a multi-million-dollar fraud scheme at Oxford Collection Agency, where Pinto served as chief executive officer.

According to court documents and statements made in court, Oxford Collection Agency (Oxford) was a private financial services company that engaged in accounts receivables management, primarily debt collecting, with offices in New York, Pennsylvania, and Florida. Businesses and other entities contracted with Oxford to collect debts on their behalf. Oxford’s clients included, among others, an educational institution, a laboratory, a computer company, and various banks. Oxford collected debts from consumers under the pretense that it would report all such collections to its clients and remit the appropriate amount to the client. However, Pinto and other Oxford executives routinely caused Oxford to collect debts that were never remitted to its clients. The co-conspirators referred to these unremitted collections as a client’s “backlog.” To hide the backlog, co-conspirators would make periodic fraudulent collection reports to certain clients that under-reported the amount of funds collected. Pinto and others diverted various funds from their client remittances and used them for their own ends.

Certain co-conspirators also transferred money from one client trust account to another client account, from Oxford’s operating account to a client account, or from a client account to Oxford’s operating account to cover various shortfalls and backlogs or to improperly use collections to directly fund Oxford’s operations.

Starting in April 2007, Oxford secured a line from credit from Connecticut-based Webster Bank, a bank that received funds through the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), without informing Webster Bank about its significant client backlogs or outstanding payroll taxes. Pinto and others sent falsified financial statements to Webster Bank, eventually increasing the credit line to $6 million, and laundered funds from the credit line to promote the ongoing fraud scheme against their clients. During that same period, Pinto and others also solicited millions of dollars in investments from various investors, without ever disclosing to their investors the existence of their backlogs. Some of the investor funds into Pinto’s personal bank account without investor knowledge.

Oxford’s victims lost more than $10 million as a result of this scheme.

The investigation also has revealed that Oxford sometimes obtained and retained business with its banking clients by paying bribes and kickbacks to bank officials.

On May 11, 2012, Pinto pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, bank fraud, and money laundering, and one count of wire fraud.

Five other Oxford executives have pleaded guilty, including Pinto’s father and chairman of the board, Richard Pinto; Pinto’s brother and Oxford vice president, Patrick Pinto, Vice President of Finance and Chief Financial Officer Randall Silver; Executive Vice President Charles Harris; and Chief Operations Officer Carlos Novelli. A former assistant vice president at U.S. Bank, Wilbur Tate, III, also pleaded guilty in relation to a conspiracy to accept bribes from executives at Oxford Collection Agency.

Richard Pinto was sentenced to five years of imprisonment. The other defendants await sentencing.

This matter is being investigated by the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (SIGTARP), and the Connecticut Securities-Commodities and Investor Fraud Task Force. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Liam Brennan and Special U.S. Attorney John McReynolds.
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NEWARK—Three Florida men were sentenced today in New Jersey federal court for their roles in conspiring to possess and sell prescription medication taken from stolen tractor trailers, New Jersey U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced.

Ernesto Romero-Vidal a/k/a “Bemba,” 48, was sentenced to 80 months in prison; Rocke R. Lopez-Batista a/k/a “El Nino,” 28, was sentenced to 40 months in prison; and Ariel Garcia, 40, was sentenced to 18 months in prison.

All three defendants previously pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge William J. Martini to separate informations charging them with conspiracy to possess stolen prescription medicine. Romero-Vidal also pleaded guilty to three additional counts of conspiring to receive and sell stolen goods, including pharmaceuticals belonging to drugmakers Bayer, Perrigo, and Sandoz Inc.

According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court:

During their guilty plea proceedings, Romero-Vidal, Lopez-Batista, and Garcia admitted that from September 2009 through October 2009, they conspired with others to possess prescription respiratory medicine manufactured by Mylan Inc. that was taken from a stolen tractor trailer in Tampa, Florida, on September 8, 2009.

On October 20, 2009, Tapanes and a conspirator delivered samples of the stolen prescription medicine to a confidential source in Elizabeth, New Jersey. Nine days later, Tapanes and Garcia delivered a tractor trailer containing the stolen medicine to a confidential source. Later that same day, Tapanes, Lopez-Batista, and Garcia were present at a meeting in Garcia’s home during which the confidential source provided them with a cash payment of $140,000 for the stolen medicine. Romero-Vidal received a payment of $4,000 from the confidential source in connection with his role for brokering this sale.

Romero-Vidal also admitted he received approximately $3,500 for brokering the sale of medication stolen from a Bayer product distribution center in Olive Branch, Mississippi, on March 23, 2009, and $5,000 as partial payment towards the delivery of stolen Perrigo products—stolen along with a tractor trailer in Dallas on March 3, 2010—to New Jersey.

He also admitted participating in the sale of Sandoz Inc. prescription respiratory medicine to two separate groups of buyers. The Sandoz products were stolen along with another tractor trailer in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, on December 2, 2009.

In addition to the prison term, Judge Martini sentenced each defendant to pay $264,900 in restitution. The judge also ordered Garcia to serve three years of supervised release and Lopez-Batista and Romero-Batista each to serve a year of supervised release.

U.S. Attorney Fishman credited special agents of the FBI, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Aaron T. Ford; special agents of IRS-Criminal Investigation, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Shantelle P. Kitchen; and detectives of the North Bergen Police Department, under the direction of Chief Robert J. Dowd, with the investigation.

The government is represented by Senior Litigation Counsel Leslie Faye Schwartz and Assistant U.S. Attorney Jane H. Yoon of the U.S. Attorney’s Office Criminal Division in Newark.
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The Wyoming Supreme Cout has upheld a law passed by the 2011 Wyoming legislature that allows judges to grant requests from police over the telephone for warrants to force motorists to submit to DUI testing.

The ruling came in response to a challenge from two Teton County motorists. The ruling means that their cases may now proceed in the court system. Lawyers for motorists Dena T. Blomquist and Terry Smith had argued before the Supreme Court in April that evidence of their clients’ blood-alcohol levels should be suppressed. The lawyers said telephonically approved warrants didn’t meet the constitutional requirements.

Lawyers for the Wyoming Attorney General’s Office argued that the telephonic warrants were just as valid as ones with written police affidavits because the conversation between the officer and the judge was recorded and officers provided sworn testimony over the telephone.

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The Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) has a sobering new report finding identity theft cost Americans $10 billion more last year than all other property crimes measured by the National Crime Victimization Survey.

While identity theft cost Americans $24.7 billion in 2012, losses for household burglary, motor vehicle theft, and property theft totaled just $14 billion.

The BJS report measures both direct and indirect losses tied to identity theft. Direct losses, the majority of the $24.7 billion, consisted of the money thieves got by misusing a victim’s personal info or account information. Indirect losses included other costs associated with identity theft — like legal fees and bounced checks.

The BJS’s last report on identity theft, for the year 2010, measured just direct losses and put them at $13.1 billion. While that report didn’t measure indirect losses, a separate research firm called Javelin Strategy and Research found this year that identity thefts are indeed on the rise.

Here are some key points from the BJS report:

85% of theft incidents involved the fraudulent use of existing accounts, rather than the use of somebody’s name to open a new account.

People whose names were used to open new accounts were more likely to experience financial hardship, emotional distress, and even problems with their relationships, than people whose existing accounts were manipulated.

Half of identity theft victims lost $100 or more.

Americans who were in households making $75,000 or more were more likely to experience identity theft than lower-income households.

While the majority of victims spent a day or less resolving the issue, identity theft can also be a drawn-out nightmare. A dramatic instance of ID theft occurred after a man named David B. Dahlstrom lost his wallet in Utah back in 1985. For the next 17 years, a German immigrant named Yorck A. Rogge masqueraded as Dahlstrom, The New York Times in 2007.

The real Dahlstrom was denied a credit card and even received an insurance claim for an accident he had nothing to do with.

In more recent years, identity thieves have begun targeting smartphone users and people who use social media and aren’t cautious about that use, experts told Reuters in 2012.

Javelin Strategy & Research found that year that someone whose information is revealed as part of an online data breach becomes 9.5 times more likely to have their identity stolen.

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Rockingham MA Dec 17 2013 Two Massachusetts women have been indicted in Rockingham Superior Court on charges alleging they were part of an organized retail crime ring.

Rosanna Fernandez, 33, of 41 Bellevue Ave. in Haverhill, and Katery Lora, 24 of 237 High St. in Lawrence, each face charges in connection to thefts made at the Mall at Rockingham Park on June 28, according to the indictments.

Fernandez was indicted on a Class B felony count of organized retail crime enterprise — which carries a possible jail sentence of between 3 1/2 to 7 years and up to a $4,000 fine — for allegedly conspiring with Lora and another woman to steal items from Abercrombie and Fitch using theft detection shielding devices and shopping bags.

Lora was indicted on a Class A misdemeanor count of use or possession of theft detection shielding devices and theft detection device removers as well as a Class A misdemeanor count of resisting arrest for her alleged role in the thefts.

Officers allegedly found Lora in possession of the shielding device when the thefts occurred on June 28, and the indictments claim she attempted to run away from the officers when they tried to arrest her.

An indictment is not an indication of guilt or conviction; rather, it means a grand jury believed there was sufficient evidence to warrant a trial.

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SAN JOSE CA DEC 16 2013— A San Jose high school marching band and color guard is persevering a day after being robbed of thousands of dollars at its weekly Bingo fundraiser event, a color guard director said Thursday.

An armed man with a ski mask on came into Oak Grove High School, located at 285 Blossom Hill Road, around 9:25 p.m. Wednesday, went to cash handlers of a Bingo fundraiser event and demanded money, color guard director Teresa Moura said.

Moura said the man took roughly $5,000, and “most people didn’t know it was going on.”

A security guard chased after the suspect, but a parent alerted him the man had a gun and the pursuit ended, she said.

“It’s sad to lose the money, but we’re just glad nobody got hurt,” she said.

As a result of the incident, Moura said staff and some parents are holding an emergency meeting to discuss added security measures.

In the 25 years of the marching band and color guard’s existence, there had not been an incident until Wednesday night. But Moura said she highly doubts the Bingo event, which is conducted weekly, will be cancelled going forward.

The fundraiser funds the band and color guard’s day-to-day operations. Oak Grove High provides anywhere from $200 to $500 a year for the program, and the Bingo event funds 85 percent of the annual funding for the band program, she said.

Moura said she and her husband, marching band director Chris Moura, have been working with the Oak Grove High band and color guard for 19 years.

Police said the suspect remains at large Thursday. Anyone with information about the incident is asked to call San Jose police.

CBS News
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ST. LOUIS • A sock monkey dressed as a cowboy made his flight to Seattle from St. Louis last week, but his tiny sidearm had to stay behind.

Phyllis McDill May, who sews the dolls for gifts and for sale, said Friday that it seemed extreme for a Transportation Security Administration agent here to confiscate a miniature toy revolver that was so obviously not a real firearm.

“She was doing her job and I understand that,” May said. “But I thought she’d take it out and look at it and see it’s a toy and give it back.”

The TSA’s response: “Under longstanding aircraft security policy, and out of an abundance of caution, realistic replicas of firearms are prohibited in carry-on bags.”

May, 57, who lives in suburban Seattle, thinks the monkey’s gun was not that realistic. It is about two inches long and weighs less than an ounce, she explained. Its trigger and hammer move, but the barrel is solid.

Still, there is a real gun in the same size range. The smallest revolver in the world is the SwissMiniGun, according to the Guinness Book of World Records. It’s 2.2 inches long, 1 centimeter wide and weighs less than an ounce — and a bullet fired from it reportedly can hit a target roughly 525 feet away.

The novelty weapon costs from $5,200 and $48,000, depending on its finish. And it’s illegal to own in the U.S., according to the Swiss manufacturer’s website.

The play gun for the sock monkey, by contrast, cost $2.50 at an online doll-supply store, May said.

She said the encounter Dec. 3 happened as she and her husband passed through security at Lambert-St. Louis International Airport, on their way home after visiting family in the Metro East area for Thanksgiving.

She carried a bag with sewing supplies and the beginnings of a monkey she calls Rooster Monkburn, a play on the name Rooster Cogburn, a character played by John Wayne in the 1969 movie “True Grit.”

Rooster wore blue jeans. May planned to finish his shirt and vest during the plane ride.

The TSA agent found the toy revolver in a pocket of a bag, and at one point threatened to call police, May said. The agent told her that if the barrel were pressed against her neck, she wouldn’t know whether it was real or fake.

“I would know it’s a toy,” May said. “We’re not James Bond here.”

Since returning home, May has finished sewing Rooster, and replaced his pistol.

May plans to fly back to St. Louis on Tuesday to celebrate Christmas with family in the O’Fallon-Fairview Heights area, where she grew up. She’ll leave the gun at home, she said. Or at least put it in checked luggage.

Robert Patrick of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.
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WASHINGTON—A man has been charged in federal court with attempting to explode a car bomb at Wichita Mid-Continent Airport, Acting Assistant Attorney General for National Security John Carlin and U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom announced today. The defendant was arrested as part of an FBI undercover investigation, and the device used by the defendant was, in fact, inert and at no time posed a danger to the public.

Terry Lee Loewen, 58, of Wichita, Kansas, is charged in a criminal complaint filed today in U.S. District Court in Wichita with one count of attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction, one count of attempting to damage property by means of an explosive, and one count of attempting to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization.

“There was no breach of Mid-Continent’s Airport’s security,” said U.S. Attorney Grissom. “At no time was the safety of travelers or members of the public placed in jeopardy.”

Loewen, who works as an avionics technician, is alleged to have spent months developing a plan that involved using his access card to airport grounds to drive a van loaded with explosives to the terminal. He planned to pull the trigger on the explosives himself and die in the explosion.

Agents arrested Loewen about 5:40 a.m. Friday after he attempted to enter the airport tarmac and deliver a vehicle loaded with what he believed were high explosives. Members of the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) took him into custody without incident.

Loewen has been under investigation by the Wichita Joint Terrorism Task Force since early summer 2013. It is alleged that, prior to his attempted attack, he made statements that he was resolved to commit an act of violent jihad against the United States. Over a period of months, he took a series of actions to advance the plot. According to an affidavit filed in support of the criminal complaint, Loewen:

• studied the layout of the airport and took photographs of access points;
• researched flight schedules;
• assisted in acquiring components for the car bomb;
• and talked about his commitment to trigger the device and martyr himself.

On Friday, Loewen went to Mid-Continent Airport to detonate the car bomb. He was taken into custody when he attempted to open a security access gate. FBI Evidence Response Teams are executing search warrants related to the case. Although the investigation is ongoing, no additional arrests are anticipated.

“Lone wolves—home-grown violent extremists—remain a very serious threat to our nation’s security,” said FBI Special Agent in Charge Michael Kaste. “Today’s arrest emphasizes the continual need for the public to remain vigilant as law enforcement relies on the public’s assistance.”

If convicted, Loewen would face a maximum penalty of life in federal prison.

The investigation was conducted by the Wichita FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force, which includes members from the FBI, Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Office, and Kansas Highway Patrol. Assisting with the investigation were the FBI Kansas City Division, the Transportation Security Administration, the Wichita Airport Authority, and the Wichita Police Department.

The case is being handled by prosecutors from the United States Attorney’s Office and the Justice Department’s National Security Division.

In all cases, defendants are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty. The charges merely contain allegations of criminal conduct.
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EUGENE, OR—Over the past two days, Chief U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken sentenced five defendants, including a real estate developer, a loan officer, a mortgage broker, and an escrow officer, for a variety of mortgage and loan fraud charges arising out of the collapse of Desert Sun Development (DSD), a company previously headquartered in Bend, Oregon. From 2004 through 2008, DSD built commercial buildings and residential housing throughout Central Oregon. According to the court records, DSD principals and other defendants caused financial institutions to lose more than $20 million.

Tyler Fitzsimons, 35, of Gold Hill, Oregon, was sentenced to 90 months in prison for spearheading this mortgage-fraud scheme. He was also ordered to pay more than $22 million in restitution. Fitzsimons started DSD in 2004 and was its president. Co-defendant Shannon Egeland, 39, of Kuna, Idaho, was DSD’s vice president. Fitzsimons and Egeland orchestrated a commercial and residential real estate scheme. As part of the commercial real estate fraud, Fitzsimons and Egeland submitted fraudulent documents, including false financial statements, tax returns, and leases, to various banks in order to obtain financing to develop and construct many of DSD’s commercial projects. Once the loans were approved, Fitzsimons, Egeland, and others submitted additional false documents, including fictitious contracts and invoices, to the banks to obtain loan proceeds for construction costs that were claimed to be associated with the fraudulent documents. For five commercial construction projects, Fitzsimons, Egeland and others obtained more than $4.2 million in funded draw requests and performed no construction.

Fitzsimons and Egeland committed fraud with DSD’s first commercial construction loan, using the money to buy themselves Dodge Vipers rather than to construct the building as promised.

Fitzsimons and Egeland also developed DSD’s employee house program, a real estate flipping scheme, and they recruited DSD employees, mortgage brokers, a loan officer, and a loan processor to help push through bad loans for participants of the scheme. Under the scheme, Fitzsimons and Egeland promised to build or sell homes at cost, and the participants agreed to flip or sell the homes and split any profit with DSD. Because most of the participants could not qualify for the loans, Fitzsimons and Egeland, among other things, undermined the loan approval process by “seasoning” or falsely inflating participants’ bank accounts through temporary deposits of DSD money. They also provided participants with undisclosed, short-term loans and submitted other fictitious documents, including letters explaining employment, large or recent deposits, and bonuses, to the banks funding the loans. As part of his guilty plea, Egeland admitted that he seasoned his own bank account with DSD money to obtain a $1.9 million construction loan to build a 22,000 square foot home in Powell Butte, Oregon. In the end, most of the homes involved in the flipping scheme were either only partially constructed or not constructed at all. Many of the properties were foreclosed upon or short sold.

Fitzsimons and Egeland used their ill-gotten gains to live an extravagant lifestyle. Among other things, they purchased large homes in Powell Butte, Oregon; Dodge Vipers, a Ferrari, a Hummer, BMWs, Mercedes; and a Malibu Wakesetter boat.

“The illegal actions of these defendants exemplify the conduct that wreaked havoc in the mortgage, financial, and real estate industries for the past several years,” said U.S. Attorney Amanda Marshall. “Banks were not the only losers in this case. Everyone lost. The effects of defendants’ large scale fraud were dramatic—the local housing market crashed, people lost their jobs, communities were littered with partially finished developments, and homes, lending markets constricted, and banks suffered millions in losses. Real estate, bank, and financial insiders who commit fraud will be held accountable.” Marshall thanked the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Internal Revenue Service, and the State of Oregon-Division of Finance and Corporate Securities, for their investigative efforts.

Egeland’s sentencing hearing is set for January 29, 2014, at 11:30 a.m.

Others sentenced for their role in the scheme include Jeremy Kendall, 36, of Camano Island, Washington; Jeffrey Sprague, 50, of Bend, Oregon; Shaun Little, 44, of Bend, Oregon; and Teresa Ausbrooks, 51, of Farmington, New Mexico.

Kendall was sentenced to 18 months in prison and was ordered to pay more than $22 million in restitution for his role in the fraud. Kendall, a DSD employee and officer manager, at Fitzsimons’s and Egeland’s direction, created and submitted fraudulent documents to various financial institutions to gain financing for various DSD projects. Kendall was also involved in seasoning bank accounts, including his own, for individuals involved in DSD’s residential flipping scheme.

Sprague was sentenced to 46 months in prison and was ordered to pay $3.6 million in restitution. Sprague, a former loan officer at West Coast Bank, falsified loan applications for individuals involved in DSD’s flipping scheme by fraudulently inflating their monthly income and falsely claiming that these homes were going to be the employees’ primary residence. Sprague also knew the loan files contained forged or scanned signatures and other material misrepresentations and omissions. West Coast Bank approved and funded the loans based on the loan applications that Sprague falsified and on the other documents that Sprague submitted to the bank that he knew were false.

Shaun Little, 44, of Bend, Oregon, was sentenced to five years of probation with eight months in a halfway house for assisting participants in DSD’s flipping scheme obtain bad loans. He was also ordered to pay $191,171 in restitution. Little, a former mortgage broker, knew DSD was seasoning participants’ bank accounts and submitted a false loan application and supporting documentation to obtain a loan for a participant of DSD’s flipping scheme.

Teresa Ausbrooks, 51, of Farmington, New Mexico, was sentenced to one year and one day in prison and was ordered to pay $184,839.66. Ausbrooks, a former escrow officer, participated in DSD’s flipping scheme and executed a similar, separate scheme. She lied on home loan applications about her income and omitted liabilities, including a side agreement with Fitzsimons.

Several other defendants involved in the DSD investigation have already been sentenced. Del Barber, Jr., 44, of Spokane, Washington, and a former mortgage broker, was sentenced to 15 months in prison for creating and submitting fraudulent loan applications for participants of DSD’s flipping scheme. He was also ordered to pay $119,654 in restitution. Robert Brink, 62, of Junction City, Oregon, a former bank building inspector for Umpqua Bank, was sentenced to 12 months and one day in prison and was ordered to pay $181,276 in restitution for submitting false inspection reports to Umpqua bank for two of DSD’s commercial projects. Brink claimed construction had occurred, when, in reality, no construction had occurred, and Umpqua Bank had funded more than $700,000 in draw requests.

Michael Wilson, 61, of Merrells Inlet, South Carolina, a former DSD employee, was sentenced to five years of supervised release and community service for participating in DSD’s flipping scheme. He was also ordered to pay $303,114.95 in restitution. Garret Towne, 34, of Eugene, Oregon, a former DSD employee, and Barbara Hotchkiss, 44, of Redmond, Oregon, a former loan processor at West Coast Bank, were sentenced to probation and community service in Deschutes County Court for their roles in the DSD residential flipping scheme. They were ordered to pay $202,415 and $303,069 in restitution, respectively. Kevin Mandlin, 50, of Bend, Oregon, was sentenced to one year of probation for submitting a false document to a bank on behalf of DSD for Egeland’s home in Powell Butte, Oregon.

John Partin, a building material supplier in Bend, Oregon, is scheduled to be sentenced for his role in the fraud on March 12, 2014.

“This bold fraud scheme was born out of the housing bubble long ago, but its effects will be felt by the construction and banking businesses in Central Oregon for many years to come,” said Kevin Rickett, Acting Special Agent in Charge of the FBI in Oregon. “It’s a scam that involved losses in the tens of millions of dollars as the defendants pursued lavish lifestyles. Major mortgage fraud cases such as this one are and will continue to be a high priority for the FBI.”

Mortgage fraud weakens the economic integrity of our communities and our nation and, more significantly, hurts a broad range of people,” said Teri L. Alexander, Acting Special Agent in Charge of IRS-Criminal Investigation in the Pacific Northwest. “Criminals who try to line their own pockets through fraudulent schemes should see the prison sentences handed down in this case as proof that the harm mortgage fraud inflicts on our communities will not go unpunished. I am pleased that the IRS was part of the law-enforcement team that worked to dismantle this criminal enterprise and help bring fraudsters to justice.”

These cases were investigated by the FBI, the IRS, and the Oregon Division of Finance and Corporate Securities and are being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Scott E. Bradford.
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