Three New York Defendants Convicted of Fraud

Ronald Persaud, Esther Persaud and Shawn Persaud, all of Saratoga, N.Y., were convicted for their roles in a mortgage fraud scheme. Ronald and convicted defendant Indranie Persaud perpetuated a scheme to inflate the latter's employment income on a mortgage application to obtain a $712,000 mortgage to obtain a real property known as 12 Beacon Hill, Saratoga Springs, N.Y. Ronald and Esther Persaud also perpetrated a wire fraud conspiracy by enticing investors to pay advance fees on the false promise that the investors would receive millions of dollars in commercial funding. The investors made advance fee payments in excess of $1 million and received no commercial funding. Ronald purported to be the person with banking connections while Esther purported to be a bank executive. Ronald, Esther and Shawn Persaud then conspired to conduct a series of financial transactions calculated to conceal and disguise the source, ownership and control of the advance fees paid to the Persauds and others. All are scheduled for sentencing on March 9, 2009.