Kingpin, Married Couple Make Mortgage Fraud Blotter

Courts across the country slapped defendants with charges over mortgage fraud this week, as a title agent, her husband, and a Brockton man received charges and a so-called kingpin from New York saw the next four to 12 years of his life consigned to prison.

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_MReport_ canvassed several news outlets Friday that include ""ABC News"":http://www.abc6onyourside.com/shared/newsroom/top_stories/videos/wsyx_vid_15065.shtml, ""EnterpriseNews.com"":http://www.enterprisenews.com/news/x906113504/Brockton-man-indicted-in-mortgage-fraud-case, and ""_Long Island Business News_"":http://libn.com/2011/12/09/li-mortgage-fraud-ringleader-sentenced/.

First up? A federal grand jury returned charges against title agent Deborah Kistner, husband Mark, employee Philip Ennis, and associate Jaime Smith for their roles in bilking four lenders out of more than $7 million in loans between 2006 and 2008, according to ABC.

The news outlet said that defendants carried out their alleged activities by buying up properties around Ohio without down payments, and then used the loan proceeds illicitly taken from financial institutions.

The defendants allegedly came up with false statements about buyer income and assets, according to ABC, and hid kickbacks to investors as so-called advisory fees.

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The charges include counts of conspiracy to commit bank and wire fraud, bank fraud, money laundering, with hefty 20-year prison sentences in store for each conviction, the news outlet reports.

Next up, EnterpriseNews.com offers the account of Brockton resident Leo Desire Sr., who authorities charged with 16 counts of wire fraud and two related to aggravated identity theft ├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├óÔé¼┼ô all over sham buyers he allegedly deployed to purchase apartment units for $3 million.

The Web site said that purported residents had no desire to live on their mortgage-financed properties, and that Desire submitted false W-2 documents and HUD applications.

Convictions on these charges could result in 20-year prison sentences, with three years of supervised release and $250,000 in related fines on each count of wire fraud, according to EnterpriseNews.com. Identity theft would carry a two-year prison sentence.

Lastly, _Business News_ reported that so-called mortgage-fraud kingpin James Sweet, of Westbury, New York, pled guilty to counts that include enterprise corruption, grand larceny, money laundering, and more ├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├óÔé¼┼ô with the order that he restitute $1.2 million to ripped lenders.

The king reference owes to Sweet's role in what is reportedly the largest case of mortgage fraud in the history of Nassau County, which saw 17 defendants allegedly walk away with $20 million in stolen mortgage and property proceeds over six years, according to the news service.

The _Business News_ said that homes eventually went into foreclosure as a result of hundreds of thousands in dollars lost in mortgage and property proceeds.