Reverse Loan Originator, Onetime Company Exec Make Fraud Blotter

A former company executive previously convicted of $100 million in mortgage fraud saw his name on our mortgage fraud blotter for his role in orchestrating an attempted hit from prison, right next to a loan officer sentenced to jail time for taking in $2.5 million in a reverse mortgage plot.

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_MReport_ sourced the two stories Monday from the ""Justice Department"":http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2012/January/12-civ-084.html and ""_Washington Post_"":http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/ny-man-jailed-in-100m-mortgage-fraud-plot-admits-trying-to-get-key-witness-killed-in-revenge/2012/01/23/gIQAtJjHLQ_story.html.

First up, the Justice Department offered the account of a Florida loan officer, Louis Gendason, sentenced by a federal judge to 70 months in the slammer, plus five years of supervised release and $2 million in restitution fees, for coordinating a reverse mortgage fraud scheme that targeted elderly borrowers.

According to a statement, Gendason masterminded the effort with co-conspirators Kimberly Mackey and Marcos Echevarria to lure elderly borrowers in distress to apply for reverse mortgages, conceal real equity with a false kind obtained with fraudulent appraisals, and then abscond with actual equity.

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Mackey and Echevarria both received prison sentences lasting for 60 and 24 months, respectively, last year, with Gendason making the final defendant in the case.

""The stiff sentence the court imposed on the leader of this reverse mortgage fraud scheme sounds a cautionary note to those who prey upon elderly, distressed homeowners,"" Tony West, assistant attorney general with the Justice Department, said in the statement.

""We will not waver in our commitment to investigate, prosecute, and hold accountable those who try to victimize our nation's most vulnerable consumers,"" he added.

In another case, former AFG Financial Group Inc. President Aaron Hand, previously convicted for his role in reaping $100 million by way of mortgage fraud, pled guilty Monday to trying to order a hit on the witness responsible for his current sentence, according to the _Post_.

The news outlet said that Hand pled guilty to conspiracy to commit murder, with prosecutors saying that he gave an undercover investigator money for a gun, along with detailed instructions and $2,000 for his trouble.

He previously solicited $100 million in loot from loans he and a cadre of mortgage brokers and attorneys obtained by thieving proceeds from mortgages that banks made available to homebuyers, according to the _Post_.

The news outlet said that the investigator offered the court a recorded conversation in which Hand reportedly said, ""I wish I was there to├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├é┬ª watch him suffer.""

The onetime company executive could face 25 years to life if convicted on attempted murder, according to the _Post, a number of years that would top eight and 25 he continues to serve for his role in mortgage fraud.