A Maryland mortgage broker has entered a guilty plea in two separate fraud schemes, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Emeka Udeze, 38, of Bowie, Md., pleaded guilty today to conspiring to commit wire fraud in connection with two schemes that resulted in $2,013,478 of actual losses to mortgage lenders.
According to his plea, Udeze was a licensed mortgage broker who worked at various companies. Udeze also registered a Maryland company he claimed was established to provide general services, among other things.
Udeze admitted that in both schemes he submitted fraudulent mortgage loan applications for buyers, inflating the buyer’s income and creating bogus employment information in an effort to qualify these individuals for loans that they otherwise were unqualified to secure. In some cases, no mortgage payments were made and the property went swiftly into default. In other cases, the borrowers attempted to make mortgage payments for a period of time until they could no longer make payments.
In the first scheme, from at least 2006 through at least December 2008, Udeze and others contacted individuals who wished to purchase homes. The buyers, who typically had moderate to low incomes, provided the conspirators with accurate income and employment information. Udeze and others then submitted fraudulent loan applications on behalf of the buyers, inflated the buyers’ income, and created bogus employment information in an effort to secure the loan. Udeze, Shola Risikat Balogun and others profited from these fraudulent transactions by collecting origination fees, commissions, yield-spread premiums, and brokers’ fees from each loan that closed.
In a separate scheme, from May 2009 to January 2010, Udeze and others arranged for individuals to buy and sell real estate so they could improperly obtain money from the transactions. Udeze, Niesha Williams and others submitted fraudulent loan applications, created multiple versions, of settlement statements to deceive lenders, lien holders, buyers and sellers; and arranged for proceeds from mortgage transactions to be disbursed to shell companies created by Udeze and others in order to disguise that the money was really for their benefit. Co-conspirators also failed to make required disbursements of settlement funds to pre-existing lien holders, funneling the money instead to themselves.
As part of his plea agreement, Udeze will be required to pay restitution and forfeit $2,013,478, the amount of actual losses suffered by the mortgage lenders as the result of the at least 20 transactions Udeke brokered in furtherance of the fraud schemes.
Udeze faces a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison and a $1 million fine on each of the two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. U.S. District Judge Peter J. Messitte did not set a date for sentencing.
Balogun, 46, of Upper Marlboro, Md., and Williams, 33, of Fort Washington, Md., each previously pleaded guilty to their respective roles in the fraud schemes. No sentencing date has been scheduled for them at this time.
The related enforcement actions are part of efforts underway by
