Miami Woman Sentenced in $1 MM Fraud Case

U.S. District Judge Alan S. Gold sentenced Adriana Cruz of Miami to 15 months' imprisonment, followed by 36 months of supervised release, for her role in a mortgage fraud scheme that resulted in the granting of two fraudulent home equity loans totaling $1 million. Judge Gold also ordered Cruz pay nearly $800,000 in restitution. According to Jeffrey H. Sloman, acting U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Cruz admitted that she and others simultaneously submitted two fraudulent loan applications, each at $500,000, to Bank of America and Wachovia Bank. The applications contained stolen identification information belonging to a co-conspirator's mother-in-law. In each application, the co-conspirators represented the mother-in-law as the purported borrower and pledged her house as collateral. The fraudulent applications were submitted to co-conspirators who worked as loan officers at the banks. When each loan application was submitted, neither bank was made aware of the other pending loan. The purported borrower's signatures were forged and Cruz obtained fake notarizations. After the loans were approved, the proceeds were made available to the co-conspirators. Cruz's co-conspirators previously pleaded guilty and have been sentenced in connection with this case.