Iowa Couple's Legitimate Move To Score 'Free House' Through Homestead Exemption Claim May Be Sunk After Feds Bring Charges For Alleged Mortgage Fraud

In Des Moines, Iowa, the Des Moines Register reports:

• An Ankeny couple were engaged in bank fraud when they exploited an 1888 loophole in mortgage law to obtain a free house, part of a scheme that also involved a Des Moines police officer and his wife, according to a 26-page federal indictment unsealed Friday afternoon.
  
  
• The 13-count indictment alleges that Jamie Bowers-Danielson, her husband Matthew Danielson, Bobbi Jo Wojewoda, and her husband, Des Moines police Lt. Wade Wojewoda, were part of a nearly four-year conspiracy of lying to banks and falsifying documents to get loans approved.

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• The Danielsons gained public attention last year when they used a century-old banking technicality to escape payments on a $278,000 home [...] in Ankeny. The couple persuaded Iowa appellate courts to void a foreclosure proceeding based on the fact that Iowa law requires both spouses to sign a mortgage.

For more, including the 26-page federal indictment, see Updated: Mortgage fraud indictment includes DMPD officer, couple who received a free home last year.

For the Iowa appeals court ruling that allowed the homeowners to score a 'free house' in the first place, see Citimortgage, Inc. v. Danielson, 771 N.W.2d 653, 2009 Iowa App. LEXIS 1071 (Iowa Ct. App., 2009)

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