Utah Mortgage Company Owners Charged With Fraud

Tyler Cassity, the chief executive of Midvale, Utah-based Utah Financial Inc., and his wife, Olivia Cassity, have been charged with 18 felony counts for allegedly running a mortgage fraud scheme. According to the Utah Attorney General's Office, the Cassitys allegedly prepared their own appraisals using the name of a separate licensed appraiser and substituting photos of more lavish homes as part of those appraisals to inflate the value of the real estate described in those appraisals. They then allegedly used straw buyers to obtain loans far in excess of the true value of the properties. Equity was then allegedly skimmed from the properties in order to gain tax advantages and buy other properties. The alleged scheme may have netted several million dollars. The Attorney General's Office has asked a judge to freeze the assets of the defendants and is seeking criminal forfeiture of their business and their home in Salt Lake City. Prosecutors asked that bail be set at $500,000 for each defendant.