Four charged in mortgage fraud scheme

Manhattan federal prosecutors have charged four New Yorkers for allegedly conspiring to obtain more than $10 million in fraudulent home mortgage loans in a plan that involved former prisoners living in a halfway house and residents of public housing posing as home buyers. Most of the mortgages, which were subprime loans provided to borrowers considered high credit risks, are now in default or in foreclosure. The defendants, who allegedly prepared false paperwork to submit to mortgage lenders, are June Persaud of Brooklyn and Sharmon Howell of Queens. Two more defendants — David Moore and Oscar Ancrum — are still being sought.