Wednesday, May 18, 2005 | ||
Bad Links? | Defendant pleads guilty in mortgage fraud caseBy LEE WILLIAMS A 55-year-old woman accused of participating in a $20 million mortgage fraud scheme that involved properties in Fairburn, Griffin and several other cities in the Atlanta metro area pleaded guilty, U.S. Attorney officials announced. Judith "Judy" Hooper, also known as Jerry Dale Hunter, pleaded guilty May 10 to charges of mortgage fraud, obtaining false social security numbers and conspiracy, U.S. Attorney General spokesman Patrick Crosby said. Hooper is scheduled for sentencing at 10:30 a.m. July 27, before U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Thrash. Hooper was indicted on the charges May 13, 2004, along with former closing attorney Chalana C. McFarland, 35, of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and 11 other co-defendants in a mortgage fraud scheme based in the Atlanta area, said David Nahmias, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia. The defendants were charged with wire fraud, bank fraud, money laundering, and conspiracy, all related to a multi-million-dollar mortgage fraud scheme, Nahmias added. According to the indictment, from mid-1999 through March 2004, McFarland and the other defendants, with the assistance of Hooper, defrauded financial institutions and other mortgage lenders by submitting false qualifying information and false documentation to obtain mortgage loans, using the U.S. mail and various wire transfers of qualifying information and scheme proceeds, Crosby said. The indictment alleges that the defendants, as a group, conspired to either use stolen identities and false social security numbers, or to pay straw borrowers to obtain mortgage loans with falsely represented employment, income, assets and liabilities. The scheme, which involved the flipping of residential properties primarily in the Mountain Oaks, North Shore, Southland and Waters Edge Subdivisions in Lithonia and Stone Mountain, and other residential properties in Douglasville, Elberton, Fairburn, Griffin and Atlanta, involved mortgage loans totaling approximately $20 million. Hooper was a former mortgage broker who allegedly changed her identity to "Jerry Dale Hunter" and arranged for loans to be originated through the mortgage brokerage firm, "American Mortgage Exchange." Hooper also is charged in a separate indictment with causing false statements to be made to the Social Security Administration to obtain a social security number in the identity of a then 2-year-old boy and using that number to open a Citizens Trust Bank account to receive proceeds of the mortgage fraud scheme. Hooper bolted from the country in mid-2000, when lenders began to suspect fraud, and the investigation began. Hooper fled to Belize, then Canada, and other locations outside the U.S. for approximately five years. The closing attorney, McFarland, was convicted on all charges after a four-week trial in January 2005. Ten defendants have pleaded guilty in the scheme. Charges were dismissed against the remaining two defendants. Nahmias; FBI Special Agent in Charge Gregory Jones; William Creel, Special Agent in Charge of the Southeast Region of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Office of Inspector General; U.S. Postal Inspectors, Dekalb County District Attorney officials and Florida State A&M University police are investigating the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Gale McKenzie is prosecuting the case. |
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