D.C.-Based Broker Sentenced for Fraud

U.S. District Judge Alexander Williams, Jr., sentenced Sidney Okosun, a Nigerian national residing in Washington, D.C., to 18 months in prison, followed by five years of supervised release for bank fraud in connection with a scheme to defraud mortgage lenders. Judge Williams also ordered Okosun to pay $2.2 million in restitution. According to Rod J. Rosenstein, U.S. attorney for the District of Maryland, Okosun, a loan officer formerly licensed as a mortgage originator by the state of Maryland, conspired with others to purchase properties from a company co-defendant Oladipo Olafunmiloye owned. Conspirators sought mortgages and refinance loans to purchase the properties without having to identify Olafunmiloye's ownership interest. The defendants recruited straw buyers who made almost none of the payments related to the purchase of the properties. Once the purchase of the properties had been funded, Olafunmiloye caused the straw buyers to default on their mortgage payments. As a result, the lenders were forced to foreclose on those properties. Acting as mortgage broker, Okosun coordinated the submission of nine fraudulent loan applications to lenders and brokered the fraudulent loans. Olafunmiloye was sentenced to 46 months in prison for his role in the scheme. Oyekunle Ikudayisi was sentenced to six months in prison and six months home detention with electronic monitoring. Kolawole Aminu was sentenced to three years probation.