Sentencing Begins For S. Florida Quartet Convicted In Mortgage Fraud Scam Involving Bogus Docs & Appraisals, Escrow Cash Ripoffs, Phony Short Sales

From the Office of the U.S. Attorney (Miami, Florida):

• Wifredo A. Ferrer, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, [and a cast of others] announce that defendants Kimberly Mackey, 46, of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Marcos Echevarria, 29, of Palm Beach, Florida, were sentenced [] before U.S. District Court Judge William P. Dimitrouleas. Defendants Louis Gendason, 42, of Delray Beach, Florida, and John Incandela, 24, of Palm Beach, Florida, will be sentenced on December 16, 2011.

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• According to the Information and statements made in court, from May 2009 through November 2010, the defendants engaged in a reverse mortgage scheme that defrauded unwitting borrowers, Genworth Financial Home Equity Access, Inc. (Genworth), and the Federal Housing Administration (FHA).

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• To qualify the borrowers for the loans, Gendason altered real estate appraisals to fraudulently inflate the value of the borrowers properties. In fact, however, none of the borrowers had sufficient equity in their properties to qualify for a reverse mortgage.

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• As a further part of the conspiracy, defendant Kimberly Mackey, a licensed title agent and proprietor of Real Estate One Land Services, Inc. (REO), located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, fraudulently closed the Genworth loans, failing to pay off the borrowers existing mortgage loans.

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• Between May 2009 and November 2010, Mackey received loan proceeds from Genworth totaling $2,572,813.19. Mackey fraudulently diverted at least $988,086.33 to a bank account controlled by Incandela and Gendason, who used this money for their personal benefit.



• Thereafter, to perpetuate the fraud, the defendants engaged in a loan modification scheme to conceal the existence of the Genworth reverse mortgage transactions from the original mortgage lenders, whose loans remained unpaid.



• To this end, Gendason, Incandela, and Mackey conspired to create fictitious offers to buy some of the borrowers properties, in the form of short sales. [...] In other instances, to hide the existence of the Genworth reverse mortgage loan from the original lenders, the defendants made monthly mortgage payments to the borrowers original lenders.

For the U.S. Attorney press release, see Loan Officer And Title Agent Sentenced For $2.5 Million Reverse Mortgage And Loan Modification Scheme.

(1) Defendant Echevarria was sentenced to 24 months in prison, to be followed by five years of supervised release. Defendant Mackey was sentenced to 60 months in prison, to be followed by five years of supervised release. Restitution was ordered in the amount of $1,654,805.36.

All of the defendants, including Louis Gendason, 42, of Delray Beach, FL, previously pled guilty to a Criminal Information charging them with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1349, for their participation in a $2.5 million Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (a.k.a. reverse mortgage) fraud scheme. Sentencing for Gendason has been scheduled for December 16, 2011 at 1:45 PM before U.S. District Court Judge William P. Dimitrouleas.