Philip Cottrell reports that recently Twelve people were formally charged with a $40 million fraud relying on falsified documents documents and straw buyers to bilk mortgage lenders for properties at resorts in South Carolina and Georgia.
The 12 were accused today of using unqualified and false buyers to purchase 28 oceanfront condominiums from financially distressed developers in Wildwood Crest, New Jersey, according to an indictment in federal court in Camden, New Jersey. They used similar methods to buy 21 properties in Georgia and South Carolina, and eight properties in foreclosure in New Jersey.
The appointed prosecutors said the scheme caused more than $40 million in losses to various financial institutions. Nine of the 12 charged were arrested, including Joseph Witkowski, 66, who helped to locate properties to buy; Isatu Tejan-Sie, 54, a loan representative at Citigroup Inc. (C); and Robert Serao, 46, a former loan officer at Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC), the government said.
After mortgage loans were approved, Witkowski and others took proceeds from the fraudulent mortgage loans by having funds wired or checks deposited into various accounts they controlled, according to the indictment.
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