Closing Agent Gets 4 1/2 To 13 1/2 Years For Refinance Ripoffs; Pocketed Portions Of Loan Proceeds, Left Pre-Existing Liens Unpaid, Leaving Homeowner With Multiple Mortgages

From the Office of the Westchester County, New York District Attorney:

• Westchester County District Attorney Janet DiFiore announced that Loronda Murphy (DOB 07/13/64) of 4 Heather Lane, Greenwich, Connecticut, was sentenced [] to 4 ½ to 13 ½ years in prison on her September 2012 guilty plea to:
  
  a) one count of Residential Mortgage Fraud in the First Degree, a class "B" Felony,
  b) one count of Residential Mortgage Fraud in the Second Degree, a class "C" Felony,
  
  From April 2009 to June 2009, operating under the home mortgage closing company Settle One Corporation, with an office located at 428 Main Street in Armonk, New York, the defendant, Loronda Murphy along with real estate attorney Scott Forcino, engaged in what amounted to a home mortgage fraud "Ponzi" scheme.
  
  The targeted homeowner/victims each took out a new mortgage on their home through Settle One Corporation with the understanding that real estate attorney Scott Forcino would oversee their closing and that money from their new mortgage would pay off their pre-existing mortgage.
  
  However, Forcino instead allowed Murphy to fraudulently assume the role of attorney for each closing, and, much to the homeowner's surprise, rather than paying off their pre-existing mortgage, Murphy instead stole portions of their new loan money and left their pre-existing mortgage unpaid.
  
  Murphy's theft then left the homeowner with the unsustainable burden of having multiple mortgages on their family home at one time.
  
  Over this time period the pair defrauded five victims including Murphy's father.

For the Westchester County DA press release, see Former North Castle republican Chairwoman Sentenced In Residential Mortgage Fraud Scheme.