Mortgage Broker Charged With Fraud on CU Loans

A Utah mortgage broker has been charged with altering applications for mortgage loans provided to two state credit unions, one of which went bust in 2008 in the face of big losses on its mortgage portfolio. Joshua Butcher, a 28-year-old broker for Envision Lending Group in Utah, allegedly altered loan applications he sent on to TransWest Credit Union and Salt Lake Credit Union, which was merged into Mountain America Credit Union as losses were growing on its RE portfolio. Butcher, without the knowledge of the borrowers who would have been ineligible for the loans otherwise, overstated incomes and assets and even misstated that the borrower intended to occupy the house, even when the homes were bought on speculation for resale, according to a federal grand jury indictment handed down Wednesday. The charges are the latest in a growing number of cases where the state's inflated real estate markets were used to secure credit unions and bank loans, then caused big losses once the market soured. Lawyers for Butcher did not return phone calls seeking comment.