Manhattan Feds Bust Alleged Equity Stripping, Mortgage Fraud Scam; 13 Suspects Charged

In Islip, New York, the New York Daily News reports:

• The feds busted up a $10 million mortgage scam that had left city and Long Island homeowners facing eviction. The scheme, run out of Bridgewater Funding in Islip, L.I., targeted dozens of residential properties in the $200,000 to $500,000 range, Manhattan prosecutors said [Thursday].(1)

• The mortgage brokerage firm would approach homeowners who were facing foreclosure and convince them to sell their homes to straw buyers they had recruited, prosecutors said. The fraudsters then told the homeowners they could stay in their houses and that they would make the mortgage payments until they could resell the home at a profit. Using the names of the straw buyers, the ring then took out mortgages that were for more than what they had paid for the houses.

• After pocketing the difference, Bridgewater never made any mortgage payments, leaving the straw buyers on the hook - and the homeowners facing eviction.

For more, see Feds bust ring in $10M mortgage scam.

For the U.S. Attorney (New York - Southern District) press release, see: THIRTEEN CHARGED WITH MORTGAGE FRAUD RUN OUT OF ISLIP, NEW YORK, MORTGAGE BROKERAGE FIRM BRIDGEWATER FUNDING, LLP.

(1) Those charged are loan officers Micah Meyers, Jakob Gearwar and a man known as Eddie Garcia; office manager Brian Urraro; loan processor Michael Didio; attorneys Stephen Caputo and Dawn Hughes; alleged straw buyers Jennifer Moschitta, Victor Avendano, Adrian Avendano, Janet McGuinness and Liam Leavey; and Daniel Hampton, charged with falsely verifying their employment information to lenders.