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crooked mortgage broker indicted
By admin | January 10, 2008
A mortgage broker from Lynwood, Indiana has been indicted on 14 counts of fraud in 27 homes most of them located in Gary, Indiana. She has also been indicted for misuse of a social security number. Tameka Bryant, 35 has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Bryant allegedly deposited money into her clients’ account to boost their creditworthiness and created fake identities and employment records for them. She was also married to James Clark twice under two different identities. She also conspired with her husband and two other people to obtain loans through her two brokerage businesses which were located in Merrillville, Indiana. She carried out all her activities through her two offices Guarantee Mortgage and Challenge Mortgage.
Bryant was also in cahoots with Anthony K. McDonald who was charged with buying 10 homes in Gary through a mortgage firm ‘Company A’. Despite earning a very low income ranging between $ 14,000 and $ 20,000 a year McDonald was able to obtain loans amounting to nearly $ 500,000. This was made possible through various misrepresentations and untruths stated in applications submitted to lenders through one of Bryant’s company.
Mortgage frauds have become an increasing source of worry in the mortgage industry with brokers losing reputation due to such frauds being committed by some unethical characters in the same industry. The number of people convicted of mortgage frauds has skyrocketed in the past few years and is a major blot on the credibility of the mortgage industry. The loopholes present in the system of verification along with the presence of lenders who lend at a higher rate of interest to persons with a dubious credit record has only compounded things further. The process of sanctioning loans needs to be made stricter with lenders themselves taking steps to assess the creditworthiness of the borrower.
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