Sixteen people were charged in a grand jury indictment that was unsealed on Nov. 19 with bilking mortgage lenders out of more than $13 million dollars in loans in connection with approximately 28 Long Island properties, according to federal prosecutors. Three of the defendants charged with mortgage fraud were also indicted for participation in a cocaine distribution ring, says a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement investigators, along with members of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force, uncovered the two separate fraud schemes and the drug ring. The complex scams involved mortgage brokers, real estate appraisers, loan processors, and a bank employee, Gloria Espenas, the former vice president of a JP Morgan Chase branch in Nassau County.
In the first alleged scheme, Robert Guerrero, owner of Property Cash in Greenlawn, and Gary Jacques, owner of Home Cash in Huntington Station, used their companies to purchase Long Island real estate. In some cases, the men would trick homeowners who were in danger of defaulting on their mortgages into signing over their property titles to Home Cash or Property Cash, after promising the victims they could prevent their homes from being foreclosed upon, prosecutors say. read more
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