Market Data 
Markets
Replies to post #55244 on Medical Marijuana Inc (MJNA)
12/02/12 9:18 AM
According to the indictment, Loomis used Michael Llamas, 27, of Tracy, and Peter Woodard, 54, Ventura, to approach builders of new homes and developers of condominiums to purchase investment homes in bulk at substantial price discounts ranging from 30 to 50 percent off under the terms of an “option contract.” Llamas and Woodard had no financial ability and no intention of purchasing the homes; rather, the homes were to be sold to Loomis’s nominee members at full price. Loomis then arranged for his mortgage company, Nationwide Lending Group (NLG), to sell mortgage loans for the nominees with banks and other lenders at the full price of the homes without disclosing the large price discount. Lenders were thereby misled into advancing loans that far exceeded their lending guidelines. Also, the large option contract price discount was used to conceal the lack of required down payments by nominee buyers. Loomis, Llamas, and Woodard split what remained of the price discount after subtraction of the fake down payments and certain fees.
Joseph A. Gekko, 43, of Yorba Linda, controlled an escrow company called Lender Services Direct (LSD), in Mission Viejo, Calif., and Tulsa, Okla. He is accused of preparing Form HUD-1 Final Settlement Statements to reflect the false sales price and to indicate down payments had been made by the nominee buyers when there were no down payments. According to the indictment, Gekko concealed the lack of down payments in a series of sham financial transactions whereby, before he closed escrow, he wired large amounts of lender money to entities associated with Loomis, Llamas, and Woodard. According to court documents Llamas and Woodard induced at least one home builder to record false liens in favor of their entity, Cobalt One LLC, for millions of dollars in bogus loans to cover up large payments from LSD to Cobalt One.
In furtherance of this second mortgage fraud scheme, Loomis and others also charged with causing NLG to provide fraudulent loan applications to lenders on behalf of nominees by means of inflating incomes and falsifying Naras Fund balances on the asset portion of the loan forms. Dawn C. Powers, 42, of Lincoln, an employee of LWS who reported directly to Loomis, is charged with providing false verifications of Naras Fund deposits to lenders in connection with the loans for nominees. Former LWS and NLG employee Christopher Jared Warren, 30, formerly of Sacramento and currently in federal custody at the Sacramento County Jail, operated NLG on a daily basis from late 2007 through part of 2008. Warren pleaded guilty to the loan fraud aspect of the scheme on January 10, 2012. Warren was sentenced to more than 14 years in prison by U.S. District Court Judge John A. Mendez on September 11, 2012 for his role in the fraud.
“This large fraud scheme is the type of case that the President’s Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force was designed to combat,” said U.S. Attorney Wagner. “In this indictment, the grand jury charged the people responsible for running a mortgage lending company and an escrow company in a fraud scheme that spanned many states and cost lenders and investors tens of millions in losses. With the sentencing of Mr. Warren on Tuesday and these charges unsealed today, we are bringing to justice some of those who are responsible for the mortgage crisis in this district and elsewhere.”
This case is the product of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation. Assistant United States Attorneys Russell L. Carlberg, Todd D. Leras, and Paul A. Hemesath are prosecuting the case.
If convicted, the defendants face a maximum statutory penalty for each violation of mail and wire fraud of 20 years in prison, a $250,000 fine, and a three-year term of supervised release. The actual sentences, if convicted, will be determined at the discretion of the court after consideration of any applicable statutory factors and the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, which take into account a number of variables.
The charges in the indictment are only allegations, and the defendants are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
Mountain House man held in fraud
TRACY - Police officers have arrested a 22-year-old Mountain House man for mortgage fraud, forgery and financial elder abuse.
Michael Llamas was arrested Wednesday after a monthlong investigation, said Tracy police Officer Kami Ysit. Llamas forged documents and rushed an elderly couple through what they believed was a loan-signing process, she said. They later learned their Tracy home had been sold, and they lost $215,000 in equity, according to police.
AI
