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Strategies & Market Trends : 2026 TeoTwawKi ... 2032 Darkest Interregnum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Snowshoe who wrote (26602)	12/17/2007 5:59:25 PM
From: Snowshoe	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 220065

6 Utahns face mortgage fraud counts - They're accused of wire fraud, mail fraud, conspiracy deseretnews.com By Geoffrey Fattah Deseret Morning News Published: December 12, 2007 Six Utah residents have been indicted by a federal grand jury on charges they conspired in what prosecutors are calling a mortgage fraud scheme that totaled at least $18 million in fraudulent loans. Wednesday a federal grand jury returned a 15-count indictment against six residents, charging them with counts of wire fraud, mail fraud and conspiracy to commit a crime. Indicted were Bradley Grant Kitchen, 40, Provo; David R. Bolick, 51, Sandy; Steve Wells Cloward, 40, Orem; Ron K. Clarke, 40, Provo; Jeffery David Garrett, 43, Provo; and Rebecca Ann Hadlock, 31, of Saratoga Springs. Federal investigators say the six, who hold various positions in the real-estate industry, formed a network to obtain a series of loans on properties of which they fraudulently inflated the market values. The indictment states that Kitchen and Bolick agreed to conduct property purchases through Bolick's company, Home Owners Group (HOG), backed up by another of Bolick's companies, Paragon Investment Group (PIG). The two then purchased properties using false statements on loan applications and using false appraisals to inflate the market values of the properties. Allegations include claims that Kitchen and Bolick recruited "straw buyers" who allowed them to use their credit to secure loans. The indictment states that the loan applications contained overstatements of income, claims of non-existent assets of several thousand up to several million dollars, false occupancy declarations; non-disclosure of payment of fees to straw buyers for signing papers and falsification of down payments when, in fact, there were no down payments, among other claims. Five homes in the Provo River Bottoms area were among properties used in the scheme. During a press conference Tuesday, federal prosecutors said Kitchen and Clarke entered fictitious sale numbers into the Multiple Listing Service to inflate area prices to use as comparables in property appraisals, which were supplied by Cloward. Garrett and Hadlock, who worked as title/escrow agents, then closed the loans. The loans were then sent through Countrywide Home Mortgage and American Broker's Conduit in California and New York for funding. U.S. Attorney for Utah Brett Tolman said the purpose of the actions was to yield millions of dollars in inflated loan proceeds, diverted to the benefit of participants in the scheme as well as to make loan payments on the River Bottoms homes to create the appearance that the loans were performing. The indictment is the first product of the Utah Mortgage Fraud Task Force, a federal, state and local law enforcement network that was formed earlier this year. With Utah ranked fifth in the nation for mortgage fraud in 2006, Tolman said the task force plans to work aggressively to combat mortgage fraud and plans to go after other operations. Assistant U.S. Attorney Barbara Bearnsen said that so far three lower-level participants in the scheme have accepted plea deals in state court and have agreed to cooperate in the prosecution by testifying against the group. Among those three, Bearnsen said, is KUTV Channel 2 sports anchor/reporter Dave Fox, who pleaded guilty last September to communication fraud. In exchange for his agreement, Fox was sentenced to 36 months of a plea in abeyance, which includes not violating any laws and payment of fees. If the agreement is followed, the three will have their cases dismissed after that period. Each of the six indicted persons has been summoned to appear in federal court in January to face the charges. If convicted, they face up to 20 years in prison for each count.