Cleveland-Area Title Agent Gets 7 Years For Role In Mortgage Fraud Involving 31 Homes

In Cleveland, Ohio, The Cleveland Plain Dealer blog reports:

• The president of a title company was sentenced to seven years in prison for her role in mortgage fraud that involved 31 houses in Cleveland, East Cleveland and Garfield Heights. Clarissa Foster, 35, of Macedonia, was sentenced Friday in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court following a six-day trial. Foster was found guilty on 44 mortgage fraud counts. The jury found her mother, Bettie Simpson, not guilty. Foster was sentenced to two years in prison to run consecutive to her five-year prison sentence from her first trial in June. Foster was the president of Shaker Title Services, which is now defunct.

• Foster's scam enabled 13 buyers to purchase 22 houses for a total of $1.2 million using fraudulent loans totaling $956,800, according to Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Bill Mason. Seventeen houses were located in Cleveland and five in East Cleveland. Most of the houses fell into mortgage or tax foreclosure.

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• In a previous case in June, Foster and Simpson went to trial with mortgage broker Corritha Wells. On June 11, all three were each found guilty of mortgage fraud related charges regarding the purchase of nine houses for a total of $846,000 using loans totaling $746,450. One house was located in Garfield Heights, one in East Cleveland, and seven in Cleveland. Six of these houses fell into foreclosure.

For more, see Company president sentenced in mortgage fraud case.