A licensed loan officer in North Carolina who worked for Beazer Mortgage Co. has been charged with three counts of mortgage fraud.
According to the criminal bill of information filed in district court, Janette Parker caused loans to be submitted to the Federal Housing Administration for insurance on which the collateral (a Beazer home) was overvalued in order to compensate for the cost of downpayment assistance needed to qualify the borrower for a loan. Parker served as the branch manager for Beazer's Charlotte office.
Parker has agreed to plead guilty to all charges that are in the bill, and she said the losses attributed to her offenses were $877,244. These losses were incurred by the FHA fund after the loans secured by the inflated Beazer homes were foreclosed.
Beazer Mortgage Corp., a wholly owned subsidiary of Beazer Homes U.S.A., based in Atlanta, ceased business operations in February 2008.
On July 1, 2009, Beazer Homes entered a deferred prosecution agreement where it admitted that it fraudulently informed homebuyers that they were receiving a “gift” from a charity to cover their downpayment. Meanwhile, the price of the home was increased to offset this “gift.”
Beazer agreed to pay up to $50 million in restitution to affected homebuyers. As of today, the Justice Department said all known victim claims have been satisfied or are being processed through these agreements.
“Although Beazer Homes previously accepted responsibility for its fraudulent activities, today's mortgage fraud charges against Ms. Parker serve as a reminder that it is the wrongful acts of individuals that allow such fraudulent activities to occur and the cumulative effect of such wrongdoing negatively impacts not only the victimized homebuyers, but U.S. taxpayers and our national economy,” said Chris Briese, special agent in charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Charlotte division. “Fortunately, Ms. Parker has elected to accept responsibility for her wrongdoing.”
Parker faces a maximum sentence of two years imprisonment for each count and a fine of up to $250,000.
