New Orleans Man Sentenced for Flipping Scheme

After hearing a guilty plea to participating in a mortgage-flipping scheme, Judge Martin L.C. Feldman sentenced Calvin Davis of New Orleans to 40 months in prison and ordered him to pay more than $1 million in restitution. According to Jim Letten, U. S. attorney for the Eastern District of Louisiana, Davis purchased various properties, obtained fraudulent appraisals and arranged for straw buyers to purchase them. Davis then sent the straw buyers to obtain loans by using fraudulent employment and credit documents as well as false tax returns. The loans were approved for the straw buyers and forwarded to the HUD offices in Denver. Based on the fraudulent applications, HUD insured the loans, which were then sold to another mortgage company. Various properties eventually went into default and HUD became responsible for paying off those loans. Davis is the fifth person to be sentenced in this case.