Two Marlboro, N.J. residents — an attorney and an investment broker — this week pleaded guilty to participating in a scheme to steal more than $2.6 million by filing fraudulent mortgage applications.
Attorney Mark J. Bellotti, 55, pleaded guilty this week to conspiracy and theft by deception. Jonathan P. Domash, 41, a broker who owned Diversified Assets, LLC, pleaded to similar charges.
Deputy Attorney General Valerie A. Noto is expected to ask Superior Court Judge Anthony J. Mellaci Jr., sitting in Freehold, to sentence Bellotti to five years in state prison. She will also ask that he be ordered to pay a $100,000 fine.
According to a report in The Asbury Park Press, Noto is expected to ask the judge to sentence Domash to 364 days in jail and five years of probation.
A third defendant, Leonardo A. Hernandez, of Hillsborough, pleaded guilty Tuesday to a disorderly persons offense of theft by deception.
“These defendants exploited all parties to these fraudulently arranged mortgage loans, dooming unqualified home buyers to foreclosure and lenders to major losses, while they ran off with enormous fees,” said state Attorney General Jeffrey Chiesa.
Bellotti and Domash admitted they conspired to falsify mortgage loan applications, paving the way for lenders to provide mortgages to unqualified home buyers. The men submitted fraudulent paperwork between April 2006 and June 2007 to obtain mortgage loans ranging from $340,000 to $540,000 for seven homes in Marlboro.
Sentencing is scheduled for July 13 for Bellotti and Domash and April 5 for Hernandez. Three other defendants are awaiting trial in the same scam.
