A Virginia short sale specialist was convicted Wednesday by a federal jury on charges including mortgage and tax fraud.
Charise Stone, 46, was found guilty on 13 charges stemming from a scheme that targeted distressed homeowners from 2007 to 2010, the U.S. Department of Justice announced. Her co-conspirator, Jose Marinay, pleaded guilty last May for his role in the alleged short sale mortgage fraud scam.
Marinay ran a Virginia settlement company, which was formerly called Virginia Smart Choice Settlements and is now known as SCS Title & Escrow. Calls to this company from National Mortgage News were not answered.
Stone allegedly acquired properties from distressed homeowners who owed more on their mortgages than the value of their homes, putting them in her name or under entities she controlled, according to the Justice Department. She would make false statements to lenders to get approval for short sales and then resell the properties often within days for more than the short sale amount.
With Marinay, she also prepared HUD-1 settlement statements for these transactions, with some of the incriminating documents being destroyed after closings. In total, Stone raked in more than $700,000 from these transactions, while financial institutions lost at least $2.2 million.
In addition to her mortgage schemes, Stone was also convicted of tax fraud. She did not file individual income tax returns and sent fake bonds to the Internal Revenue Service and false promissory notes to creditors. She faces up to 30 years in prison for some of the charges and will receive her sentencing in August.
