A Dallas woman who represented herself as a real estate investor to run a scheme that defrauded residential mortgage lenders of at least $2 million has been sentenced to more than five years in federal prison.
Patience Jackson pleaded guilty in October 2012 to one count of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud. According to court documents, she admitted that the purpose of her scheme was to fraudulently obtain residential real estate mortgages.
Claiming to be a real estate investor, Jackson admitted that she offered investment “seminars” at her house and through her “investment program,” straw purchasers were recruited to buy real estate and obtain fraudulent proceeds from the transaction by submitting fake invoices for consulting, upgrades or property repairs. In facilitating the false real estate transactions, Jackson caused the title companies to mail closing documents to residential mortgage lenders who then wired money to help fund the purchases.
As part of the scheme, Jackson expedited the mortgage loans for the straw purchasers by submitting inaccurate loan applications and documents, such as misrepresentations regarding the borrower’s income, employment, assets and intention to occupy the property. Furthermore, Jackson said she paid some borrowers to make it appear as if the purchaser had the necessary financial assets to qualify for the loan, when they really did not.
For example, in one transaction, Jackson notarized loan and closing documents for an individual known as “A.B.” who was recruited to buy the defendant’s Dallas residence. However, Jackson never met this buyer but still supplied him money for the downpayment to acquire this asset.
Because of the false statements made on this loan application, two mortgage lenders—JPMorgan Chase and First Financial Corp.—wired approximately $1.4 million to a title company to fund A.B.’s purchase.
Co-conspirator Anthony Davis Jr., who was employed as a branch manager at Bank of America, admitted that he conspired with Jackson and others to commit mail fraud as a member of this scam. Davis said he attended Jackson’s real estate investment seminars and was recruited to be one of her straw purchasers. Also, Davis confirmed that his loan application contained numerous false statements, such as the amount of available cash assets and his intention to live in the property he bought.
In another instance, Davis said he signed a false verification of deposit form for an investor, whom Jackson recruited, falsely representing that this person had a certificate of deposit at Bank of America valued at $74,595.
Davis pleaded guilty in September 2012 to one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and is scheduled to be sentenced on April 25.
Overall, as a result of this scheme, the conspirators allowed the purchased properties to go into foreclosure by not making the monthly mortgage payments, which resulted in more than $2 million in losses to mortgage lenders.
Besides 63 months in jail, Jackson was ordered by U.S. Northern District of Texas Judge Jane Boyle to pay more than $2.8 million in restitution.
