Georgia Mortgage Company Owner Gets 10 Years In Mortgage, Bankruptcy Fraud & Identity Theft Scam

The Atlanta Business Chronicle reports:

• "Donna Renae Woods Lawrence, 43, of Decatur, was sentenced Thursday ... to 10 years in prison followed by three years of supervised release and was ordered to pay $2.9 million in restitution for mortgage fraud and bankruptcy fraud. [...] Lawrence used her company, Assurety Mortgage, and a stolen social security number to obtain loan origination and underwriting authority from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for FHA guaranteed loans. She then originated hundreds of both FHA guaranteed and conventional loans with false income and employment information, including some where she was the borrower but used a stolen social security number and pretended to be her own twin sister. [...] Lawrence filed seven separate bankruptcy petitions to stay foreclosure on a number of the fraudulently acquired properties, with four of the petitions filed under the social security numbers of others. When HUD first learned of this problem and suspended Lawrence, she formed a second mortgage brokerage firm, Accurate Mortgage Group, and originated an additional 98 fraudulent loans."

Also sentenced with Lawrence were (1) Kerwanna Lashon Bennett Woods, 33, of Atlanta, (one year and six months in prison, three years of supervised release, $503,150 in restitution on a charge of bankruptcy fraud); and (2) Gwendolyn Reshell Woods, 41, of Decatur, (three years of probation beginning with six months of house arrest, restitution of $238,079 on a charge of conspiracy to commit mortgage fraud.

For more, see Three metro women punished for fraud.