Six charged in $25M Queens mortgage fraud

Six people were charged today with running a nine-year mortgage fraud scheme that took $25 million from financial institutions and mortgage lenders, Reuters reported. They will be arraigned in Brooklyn Federal Court later today.

The group allegedly obtained millions in mortgage loans by submitting false documents on behalf of homebuyers they recruited, making them appear more creditworthy than they actually were. According to prosecutors, the defendants then lied about how much money was distributed at the property closings, most of which were in Queens.

Under the scheme, the defendants earned commissions and loan fees, while lenders lost money when borrowers stopped making payments on their oversized mortgages.

The defendants include attorneys Matthew Burstein and Aaron Rabinowitz, who are charged with representing the buyers and mortgage lenders involved in the transactions, loan officers John Constantanides and Arturo Giraldo, who allegedly submitted the false documents, and real estate agents Rolando Roldan and Elias Compres, who were said to have recruited the straw buyers.

Reuters could not immediately identify the defendants’ counsel.
[Reuters]