Colorado Mortgage Broker Charged With Using Phony Documents To Obtain Loan In Property Sale, Then Stealing Portion Of Proceeds From Seller, Buyer

In Aurora, Colorado, The Denver Post reports:

• The owner of an Aurora mortgage service company has been indicted by the state grand jury for fraudulently obtaining a home loan for a client and then stealing some of the proceeds from the subsequent real estate transaction. The indictment alleges that 50-year-old Ernie Colter, owner of PMCS mortgage services company, convinced a woman identified as Joyce Hoffman to buy a $700,000 home as an investment property.

• As an incentive to buy the home, the grand jury alleged that he promised Hoffman she would receive $60,000 after the closing. In order to qualify Hoffman for the $700,000 home, Colter allegedly submitted fraudulent earnings and asset statements along with other falsified documents to Countrywide Mortgage. As a result, Colter "tricked" Countrywide Mortgage into giving Hoffman a loan of more than $20,000, when she didn't qualify, said the indictment.

• Then, said the grand jury, Colter stole money from both Hoffman and Phillip Newby, the seller of the home. Colter allegedly diverted approximately $61,000 of Newby's proceeds from the sale into his - Colter's - bank account. In order to pull off the scam, Colter allegedly submitted a fraudulent payoff to a title company that allowed $61,000 to be wired to a bank account of a financial company owned by his cousin, Derrick Washington. The money was then transferred to Colter, said the indictment. In addition, Colter only gave Hoffman $34,000 of the $60,000 he had promised. Colter is charged with three counts of theft including theft from Countrywide Mortgage, theft from Newby and theft from Hoffman. He was also indicted on one count of forgery.

Source: Owner of Aurora mortgage service company indicted.

Go here for the indictment: People v. Colter.