California Loan Coordinator Admits Lying To Grand Jury In Federal Fraud Probe

In Northern California, the San Francisco Chronicle reports:

• An Alameda County man pleaded guilty Monday to lying to a federal grand jury that is investigating subprime mortgage fraud in San Joaquin County, prosecutors said. John Ngo, 27, of Dublin, a former senior loan coordinator for Long Beach Mortgage Co., admitted receiving payments from the company's sales representatives to get loan applications approved despite knowing that many of the applications were fraudulent, said the office of U.S. Attorney McGregor Scott in Sacramento.

Acording to prosecutors, Ngo admitted that he lied about having pocketed money from a mortgage broker who referred loan applications to the company. He had actually received about $100,000, mostly to "put in the fix" in the approval process, insuring that bogus applications were given the green light. Prosecutors say Ngo has agreed to cooperate with the investigation, in which prosecutors are seeking to nail several others currently under indictment.

Ngo was nailed amid a federal probe into Stockton's Iftikhar Ahmad, who is currently under indictment for allegedly illegally flipped houses in the Stockton area. For more, see:

• Guilty plea in subprime mortgage scam,
• Man pleads guilty in mortgage fraud (Stockton Record),
• U.S. Attorney press release.