Grand jury indicts Emeryville home loan
officer
Henry K. Lee, Chronicle Staff Writer
Saturday, August 25, 2007
An Emeryville loan officer has been indicted
by a federal grand jury in Oakland on charges
that he received more than $430,000 in
illegal kickbacks and commissions from
borrowers' escrow accounts.
Renato Gonzales Quiazon, 52, who worked at
New Century Mortgage in Emeryville, used an
independent mortgage broker's name and
license on loans that he processed to get a
kickback of 80 percent of the commissions,
according to a 27-count felony indictment.
Quiazon deposited the checks for the
kickbacks into his bank account, while the
mortgage broker retained the other 20 percent
of the commissions, according to the
indictment handed down Thursday in a case
investigated by the Internal Revenue Service.
Quiazon could not be reached for comment
Friday.
The alleged scheme occurred from January 2000
to October 2004. Beginning in 2002, Quiazon
began getting commission checks directly
instead of through the mortgage broker and
forged the broker's signature on the back of
the checks, the indictment said.
Quiazon was indicted on 11 counts of wire
fraud, 12 counts of money laundering, and
four counts of filing a false return for
allegedly falsifying returns for tax years
2001 to 2004.
During those fours years, Quiazon "deducted
expenses from a business that did not exist"
and "did not report the loan kickbacks and
other payments" amounting to $430,671.
The indictment said Quiazon also falsely
reported $64,722 as having been gross
receipts for his wife's loan consulting
business. In reality, the money also
consisted of kickbacks that Quiazon earned
and had paid in his wife's name "in order to
further conceal his kickback scheme," the
indictment said.
sfgate.com
Aug 24, 2007 8:22 pm US/Pacific
Hayward Man Arrested For Loan Kickback Scheme
Criticized Prosecution Of Lawyer To Proceed
By EDMUND H. MAHONY | Courant Staff Writer
August 24, 2007
cbs5.com
BCN) SAN FRANCISCO U.S. Attorney Scott
Schools says a Hayward man who worked as a
loan officer in Emeryville and is suspected
of failing to report more than $430,000 of
income was arrested today on felony fraud
charges arising from a loan kickback scheme.
Schools said the arrest of Renato Gonzales
Quiazon follows a federal grand jury's
indictment of him on Thursday on 11 counts of
wire fraud, 12 counts of money laundering and
four counts of filing false tax returns.
The indictment alleges that Quiazon devised a
scheme to fraudulently obtain payments of
loan kickbacks, commissions and cash outs and
extraneous line items from borrowers' escrow
accounts.
According to the indictment, Quiazon was
employed as a loan officer with New Century
Mortgage in Emeryville from January 2000
through October 2004.
During that period, according to the
indictment, Quiazon entered into an agreement
with an independent mortgage broker to use
his name and broker's license on loans that
the defendant processed as the loan officer.
Prosecutors say that by using the mortgage
broker's identity on these particular loans,
New Century Mortgage issued a 1 percent
commission, amount to 1 percent of the total
loan amount, to the mortgage broker. As part
of the agreement with the mortgage broker,
the mortgage broker was to retain 20 percent
of the commissions and pay Quiazon a kickback
of 80 percent of the commissions, according
to prosecutors.
The U.S. Attorney's office says that in
contrast to his arrangement with the mortgage
broker, in about 2002 Quiazon started to get
the commission checks directly and forged the
mortgage broker's signature on the back and
deposited the checks into his bank account.
Prosecutors also allege that Quiazon filed
false individual income tax returns for the
tax years 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2004. They say
he deducted expenses that didn't exist and
failed to report the loan kickbacks and other
payments that he received, which totaled
about $430,661 for the period under
investigation.
Each count of wire fraud is punishable by up
to 20 years in federal prison and a fine of
up to $250,000. Each count of money
laundering carries up to 20 years in prison
and a fine of up to $500,000, or twice the
value of the property involved in the
transaction.
Each count of filing a false return is
punishable by up to three years in prison and
a fine of up to $250,000.
The case is being prosecuted by Assistant
U.S. Attorney Thomas Moore with the
assistance of Kathy Tat.
The prosecution resulted from an 18-month
investigation by the Internal Revenue
Service's criminal investigation unit.
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