Chandra Jones Pleads Guilty in Fraud Scheme

Chandra Jones of Lanham, Maryland, pleaded guilty to charges related to a mortgage fraud scheme that falsely promised to help homeowners facing foreclosure keep their homes and repair their damaged credit. According to her plea agreement, in July 2005, Jones was hired to work as a loan processor at the now-defunct Metropolitan Money Store in Lanham, Md., which offered foreclosure consultation and credit services to financially distressed homeowners. At MMS, Jones conspired with others to fraudulently promise to help troubled homeowners avoid foreclosure. The homeowners were directed to allow title to their homes to be put in the names of straw buyers for a year, during which time MMS promised to improve the homeowners' credit ratings, help them obtain more favorable mortgages and eventually return title to their homes to them. Using the homeowners' properties, the conspirators applied for mortgages to extract the maximum available equity from the homes and prepared and submitted to mortgage lenders fraudulent loan applications to obtain inflated loans on the target properties in the straw buyers' names. At settlements, the conspirators imposed numerous fees and required "seller contributions," which were far in excess of industry standards. They also imposed fees for services that were not performed. The total loss attributable to Jones is $4.19 million. Jones, daughter of former MMS CEO Jennifer McCall and her husband Clifford McCall, is the sixth defendant to plead guilty in the MMS mortgage fraud scheme. The McCalls also pleaded guilty to fraud charges connected with the scheme. U.S. District Judge Roger W. Titus scheduled sentencing for Jones on Oct. 5, 2009.