The final defendant who participated in a mortgage fraud ring conspiracy that resulted in $10.6 million in loan proceeds through false property transactions has been sentenced.
Ralph Appolon, who acted as a loan originator in the scheme, has to serve 70 months in prison, followed by two years of supervised release. The court also entered a $1.9 million forfeiture order to be paid by all 12 defendants in this case.
“The investigation and prosecution of the defendants involved in this conspiracy required an extensive amount of preparation and government resources,” said U.S. attorney Carmen Ortiz. “We hope to send a clear message to those in the real estate and mortgage industry—if you engage in fraud in order to line your pockets at the expense of others, we will spare no expense investigating and prosecuting you.”
Appolon was convicted in February of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
Between May and September 2005, the conspiracy involved the use of straw buyers, inflated purchase prices and false representations documents to obtain loans in order to acquire 21 Massachusetts properties.
To acquire the loans for the properties from 10 different lenders, the defendant fraudulently filed an application that misstated the borrowers income, employment, assets, purchase price for the property and intent to reside in the home. Subsequently, the mortgages on all of the properties then became defaults and nearly all of the assets went into foreclosure.
According to court documents and evidence presented at the defendant’s nine-day trial, the difference between the actual purchase price negotiated with the sellers and the inflated purchase price submitted to lenders ranged as high as $80,000 on individual properties. From these fraudulent property transactions, Appolon received over $150,000.
All the other defendants in this case have already been sentenced for their roles in this fraudulent scheme.
