Wednesday, December 24, 2008

S. Florida Man, Others Charged With Using Unwitting Mother-In-Law's I.D. & Submitting Simultaneous HELOC Applications To Suck The Equity From Her Home

The U.S. Attorney's Office in Miami, Florida announced the return of a five count grand jury indictment charging eight participants(1) with a bank fraud scheme that resulted in the approval and disbursement of two home equity loans, totaling approximately $1 million. The U.S. Attorney's office said:
  • According to the indictment, "Benny" Benach [and three others] decided to submit simultaneous applications for fraudulent home equity lines of credit (“HELOCs”) to Bank of America and Wachovia for the total amount of $1 million, requesting $500,000 from each bank. Each HELOC application listed Benach’s mother-in-law as the purported borrower, and a home owned by Benach’s mother-in-law as the collateral. To prepare and process the HELOC applications, Benach’s mother-in-law’s name and social security number were used without her knowledge, input or authority. [...] At the time of the submission of the fraudulent HELOC applications, neither bank was made aware of the other pending HELOC application.

Among the participants charged were employees of the lenders who allegedly accepted and processed bogus loan applications.

For more, see Two Bank Insiders And Six Others Charged In Bank Fraud Scheme To Defraud Bank Of America And Wachovia Of $1M.

Go here, go here, go here, go here, and go here for other posts related to deed or refinancing scams by forgery, swindle, etc.

(1) Charged were Bienvenido “Benny” Benach, Jr., Ramon Puentes, Danny Flores, Rolando Alfonso, Jorge Nobrega, Jorge Arrieta, Sebastian Kishinevsky, and Adriana Cruz. KappaDeedTheft