New Jesrey Man Cops Plea To Recruiting Straw Buyers In Mortgage Fraud Scam

In Newark, New Jersey, The Star Ledger reports:

• A truck driver from Paterson admitted in federal court to recruiting people who posed as home buyers for a mortgage-fraud scheme that led to a dozen guilty pleas. Appearing in U.S. District Court in Newark, Renford Davis, 47, said he worked with real estate agents, lawyers, loan officers and others to falsify mortgage applications as part of a scheme officials said netted up to $2.5 million.

• The plot hinged on buying dilapidated two- and three-family houses in Paterson and quickly reselling them at inflated prices to obtain higher mortgages from banks. The houses -- rented by tenants receiving federal Section 8 assistance -- were sold to buyers with no money down and often ended up in foreclosure. Davis said he recruited those buyers and helped them doctor their mortgage applications.

For more, see Paterson man pleads guilty in mortgage-fraud scheme.