Charges Handed Down in Westchester Mortgage Fraud Scheme

Eight individuals have been charged with conducting an alleged Westchester County, N.Y.-area scheme that defrauded four separate families and two mortgage lenders of $1.4 million. Doreen Swenson and Hubert Hall of Tarrytown, N.Y., Mildred Didio of New York, David Reback of Rye Brook, N.Y., Eileen Potash of Fresh Meadows, N.Y., Frank Corigilano of Newtown, Conn., Amerigo DiPietro of Brewster, N.Y., and Wilma Shkreli of Westwood, N.J., have been charged with grand larceny, fraud and conspiracy. According to Westchester County district attorney Janet DiFiore, from December 2004 to January 2007, the defendants, who were unavailable for comment at press time, allegedly victimized four separate families in Croton-on-Hudson, Yorktown Heights, Cortlandt Manor and Mount Vernon along with two mortgage lenders, wherein they induced desperate property owners fearing the threat of foreclosure to deed their homes to "investors" with the promise that they could repurchase their property in 12 to 24 months. The defendants allegedly colluded to strip the property of its equity by obtaining inflated mortgages based on fictitious purchase prices using "show" checks to deceive the banks as to the actual purchase price. The defendants were arraigned in Westchester County Court and all pleaded not guilty. Their next court appearance will be on Sept. 9.