Indicted NYC Real Estate Agent Identified By Queens Homeowner As Perpetrator Of Home Equity Ripoff

On Staten Island, New York, the Staten Island Advance reports:

• A New Springville man was part of a scheme that illegally obtained $1.6 million in mortgages for properties in Brooklyn and Queens, prosecutors allege. Nir Zeer, 30, [...] and four others are charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, said Manhattan federal prosecutor Preet Bharara. [...] The alleged crimes occurred in 2007 and 2008.

• Prosecutors said three defendants, Joan Powell, 46; Darlene Ritter, 45, and Orit Tuil, 39,(1) held themselves out as real-estate agents and recruited straw buyers to purchase the properties. [...] The trio allegedly submitted loan applications with inflated incomes on behalf of buyers and were aided by a mortgage broker, now cooperating with authorities. Another defendant, Annette Shereshevsky Fonte, 28, of Westbury, L.I., worked at a bank. She supplied phony deposit verifications in two instances to beef up purchasers' assets, said authorities.

For the story, see Islander charged for role in scam.

For the U.S. Attorney press release, see Manhattan U.S. Attorney Charges 38 Defendants As Part Of Nationwide Mortgage Fraud Sweep (p. 10 - U.S. v. Tuil, et al.)

(1) Orit Tuil was identified through property records, according to a recent New York Daily News story (see Foreclosure scam victim staying put for now), as the individual a Queens homeowner said duped her in an apparent sale leaseback, equity stripping foreclosure rescue scam. Reportedly Tuil came to the homeowner's door in 2006 claiming to be a foreclosure specialist after the homeowner and her stepmother missed payments on a $180,000 mortgage. Reportedly, the homeowner said she had to signed over the deed to her home to Tuil, and that the $180,000 mortgage was paid back in an apparent equity stripping scam when Tuil took out two mortgages totaling $405,000, according to property records.