CAMDEN, NJ—A Newark, New Jersey man was sentenced today to 66 months in prison for his role in a $40.8 million mortgage fraud conspiracy, recruiting “straw buyers” to purchase real estate properties in New Jersey, South Carolina, and Georgia, and causing lenders to release more than $18 million based on fraudulent mortgage loan applications, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced.
William Brown, 60, previously pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Joseph E. Irenas to an information charging him with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering. Judge Irenas imposed the sentence today in Camden federal court.
According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court:
Brown recruited “straw buyers” for his co-conspirators to purchase oceanfront condominiums overbuilt by financially distressed developers in Wildwood Crest, New Jersey, premier real estate in vacation destinations in Georgia and South Carolina, and properties in New Jersey owned by financially distressed homeowners facing foreclosure. Brown’s co-conspirators caused fraudulent mortgage loan applications and supporting documents to be submitted to mortgage lenders in the straw buyers’ names, attributing to them inflated income and assets in order to induce the mortgage lenders to approve the loans. Once the loans were approved and the mortgage lenders sent the loan proceeds in connection with the real estate closings on the properties, Brown’s co-conspirators took a portion of the proceeds from the fraudulent mortgage loans. Brown also admitted that he and his co-conspirators laundered the proceeds of the mortgage fraud by having some of those proceeds transferred to the recruiters and straw buyers. Brown received $96,000 for his role.
In addition to the prison term, Judge Irenas sentenced Brown to three years of supervised release and ordered him to pay $9.3 million in restitution and forfeit $96,000.
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