Chase Manhattan Participated In Builder Fraud, Says Lawsuit

The Morning Call (Allentown, Pennsylvania) reports:

• The Chase Manhattan Mortgage Corp. helped create and implement a promotional program for a Pocono home builder that fraudulently qualified hundreds of unwitting customers for mortgages they couldn't afford, according to new claims filed in federal court as part of a lawsuit.

• Chase also paid a $6,000 kickback to Tannersville developer Gene Percudani for every mortgage it approved under the program, the new documents allege, amounting to a $1.8 million payoff. Filed Wednesday by attorneys representing nearly 100 plaintiffs, the documents were in response to a motion by Chase to dismiss the suit. Chase has previously maintained it was duped by Perdudani.

• ''We have direct evidence that the home builder told Chase what it was doing, and Chase approved it,'' said Mark Cukor, one of several attorneys representing the plaintiffs.

For more, see Chase Manhattan aided fraud, suit says (Papers in 2002 action say lender was part of Pocono builder's scam).