The Jersey Lawyer

Over the past year, the office of New Jersey State Attorney General Anne Milgram has charged nearly 100 people with mortgage fraud in New Jersey.   On Tuesday, June 30, 2009, the Attorney General’s office announced several new mortgage fraud indictments exposing the alleged fraudsters to very serious criminal charges.  Anyone charged with mortgage fraud or any other serious crime in the State of New Jersey should contact a New Jersey criminal defense lawyer for assistance.

Several individuals, including Yi Feng Reid of Bergen County, New Jersey, were charged in a 17-count indictment on Tuesday, June 30, 2009, with conspiracy, theft by deception, identify theft, and money laundering for an alleged mortgage scheme.  The Attorney General’s office alleges that the suspects were involved in the mortgage and small business loan industry, and unlawfully used the identities of their clients to obtain mortgages and other loans.  It is alleged that the group obtained over $1 million in loans using false information.

In a separate indictment, commercial loan broker Ramon Coscolluela of Union, New Jersey was charged with theft by deception and attempted theft by deception for allegedly falsifying five loan applications submitted to a bank on behalf of his clients.   It is alleged that four of the loan applications were rejected, but the fifth was granted.  When the borrower defaulted on the loan, it prompted the bank to review all five applications.  The bank alleges that the applications contained false information, inflating the assets of the applicants to increase their chances of obtaining a loan.

In a third indictment, Terrance Givens of East Orange, New Jersey, was charged with one count of theft by deception for allegedly misrepresenting his employment history in a mortgage application.  The Attorney General’s office alleges that Mr. Givens listed a business founded by a relative as his employer; however, for all intents and purposes, that business allegedly never existed.  On the basis of the information provided to the bank, Mr. Givens was given a $200,000 mortgage loan, which was subsequently foreclosed.

Given the current state of the economy and housing market, many individuals have resorted to desperate measures to obtain loans and mortgages, and the State is beginning to crack down on these practices.  As shown by the cases cited above, the result is often very serious charges that carry heavy presumptive prison sentences and very high fines.  For this reason, it is important that anyone accused of a theft offense in New Jersey contact a New Jersey criminal defense lawyer. 

In most mortgage fraud cases, the suspect is usually charged with theft by deception.  Under the New Jersey theft by deception statute, N.J.S.A. 2C:20-4, “a person is guilty of theft if he purposely obtains property of another be deception.  A person deceives if he purposely: (a) creates or reinforces a false impression, including false impressions as to law, value, intention or other state of mind, and including, but not limited to, a false impression that the person is soliciting or collecting funds for a charitable purpose; but deception as to a person’s intention to perform a promise shall not be inferred from the fact alone that he did not subsequently perform the promise; (b) prevents another from acquiring information which would affect his judgment of a transaction; or (c) fails to correct a false impression which the deceiver previously created or reinforced, or which the deceiver knows to be influencing another to whom he stands in a fiduciary or confidential relationship.  The term ‘deceive’ does not, however, include falsity as to matters having no pecuniary significance, or puffing or exaggeration by statements unlikely to deceive ordinary persons in the group addressed.” 

Theft offenses are generally graded by the amount of money involved in the alleged theft.  If the amount of money involved is over $75,000, which is the case in most mortgage fraud cases, theft is graded as a second degree crime.  The statutory punishment for a second degree crime is a prison sentence between five years and ten years, and a fine of up to $150,000.   Moreover, second degree crimes carry a presumption of imprisonment, which means that anyone convicted of a third-degree crime should presumptively be sentenced to a term of imprisonment unless the court finds that imprisonment would be a serious injustice.  If the amount of money involved is more than $500, but not more than $75,000, theft is graded as a third degree crime.  A third degree crime carries a prison sentence between three and five years, and a fine of up to $15,000.   If the amount involved in the theft is between $200 and $500, it is graded as a fourth degree crime, which carries a prison sentence of up to18 months, and a fine up to $10,000.

Another common charge in mortgage fraud cases is money laundering.  Under the N.J.S.A. 2C:21-25, money laundering involves transporting or possessing property known or which a reasonable person would believe to be derived from criminal activity, or engaging in a transaction involving property known or which a reasonable person would believe to be derived from criminal activity.  The mens rea requirement for money laundering is that the suspect must have an intent to facilitate or promote criminal activity,  to conceal or disguise the nature, location, source, ownership or control of the property, or to avoid a transaction reporting requirement.  With respect to grading, if the amount of money involved is $500,000 or more, it is a crime of the first degree, which carries a presumptive term of imprisonment between ten and twenty years.  If the amount of money involved is at least $75,000 but less than $500,000 the offense constitutes a crime of the second degree.  Otherwise, the offense constitutes a crime of the third degree.

As these cases illustrate, mortgage fraud often gives rise to very serious criminal charges with very serious consequences.  Therefore, anyone charged with any crime related to mortgage fraud, whether it is theft, theft by deception, money laundering, or any other violation of the New Jersey Criminal Code, should contact a New Jersey criminal defense lawyer for representation.  Not only do these offenses carry hefty penalties, but also very long presumptive prison terms.