Colorado Mortgage Fraud Scheme Ringleader Sentenced to 30 Years

Uto Essien, the ringleader of a Colorado based multimillion-dollar mortgage fraud operation, was sentenced to 30 years in the Colorado Department of Corrections. Essien, a Nigerian national, will be deported upon completion of his sentence. An Adams County jury convicted Essien in July after a seven-day trial on four felony charges all related to the use of shell corporations and false invoices to skim money off the top of nearly three-dozen real estate transactions. According to Colorado attorney general John Suthers, Essien and his colleagues fraudulently obtained $10.9 million in mortgages to buy 34 properties in Adams, Arapahoe, Denver and Jefferson counties between April 28, 2004 and Dec. 29, 2006. Essien and his colleagues then skimmed $1.1 million from the transactions to pay for repairs to the properties that the defendants' shell corporations never completed. While acting as a real estate broker, Essien negotiated the property acquisitions and directed the buyers to create the shell corporations. Nine of Essien's co-defendants in the mortgage fraud ring have either pleaded guilty or been convicted.