| |
|
|
|
|
Search mortgage fraud news by keyword.
News, analysis and statistics about mortgage fraud.
Stories about individual mortgage crime cases.
Statics by year about real estate fraud.
Quarterly index based on case activity.
Reach mortgage executives, loan originators and other people tied to mortgage industry.
Free mortgage news for prospective borrowers.
Free e-mail newsletter with the latest headlines from MortgageDaily.com.
The latest case activity tracked by FraudBlogger.com for your Web site or for your RSS reader.
Archive of FraudBlogger.com entries going back to 2005. |
|
|
| |
PRESS RELEASE
Straight Up Fraud
$12 Million in Fraudulent Loans Gets as Many Years
|
| |
Kansas City, Kan.- (Feb. 10, 2009) David Kostelec, 54, Leawood, Kan., has been sentenced to 154 months in federal prison for leading a scheme to fraudulently obtain more than $12 million in home loans, Acting U.S. Attorney Marietta Parker announced today. He’s also ordered to pay more than $1.3 million in restitution.
Kostelec pleaded guilty in October to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering, one count of wire fraud, one count of providing false information to lenders and one count of aggravated identity theft.
In his plea, Kostelec admitted that from July 20, 2002, through Oct. 14, 2005, he and others conspired to defraud lenders by submitting fraudulent loan applications and false real estate appraisals and attempted to conceal the crimes by laundering the money through accounts at various banks.
Kostelec submitted false and fraudulent appraisal reports to lenders containing inflated property values and forged signatures of licensed appraisers. Conspirators stole the identities of licensed appraisers by searching the Internet for information including the appraisers’ state license numbers.
After closing, the conspirators used straw entities including Alexandra Enterprises and Hyde Park Development to receive the money from escrow companies. Then they moved the money to personal accounts.
Kostelec admitted:
- In July 2002, he submitted a fraudulent appraisal inflating the value of a house in the 1800 block of Timber Valley Drive in Linn Valley, Kan.
- In April 2003, he submitted a false loan application in his son’s name claiming his son was the owner of a house in the 1600 block of N. 24th Street in Kansas City, Kan. In fact, Andrew Kostelec lived with David Kostelec at another address.
- In July 2004, he fraudulently caused a lender to deposit $57,101 into an escrow account in Kansas for the purchase of a house in the 2000 block of Cypress in Kansas City, Kan.
- In October 2005, he submitted a loan application falsely stating that the borrower had an income $15,221 a month. In fact, the borrower made significantly less and lived mainly on Social Security retirement benefits.
- In January 2008 he falsely stated he had power of attorney to obtain a loan in his son’s name for $575,000 for the purchase of real estate properties in Kansas City, Mo., and Miami, Fla.
Parker, who prosecuted the case, commended the Internal Revenue Service - Criminal Investigation and Housing and Urban Development - Office of Inspector General for their work on the case.
SOURCE: United State Department of Justice -- District of Kansas
|
|
|
