Colorado Real Estate Broker Goes Down In $10.9M Mortgage Fraud Scam Involving 10-Person Ring, 34 Deals, Straw Buyers, "Phantom" Home Improvements

In Adams County, Colorado, the Denver Business Journal reports:

• Uto Essien faces a possible 36-year prison sentence for his role as the ringleader in a multimillion-dollar mortgage fraud scheme. Following a seven-day trial in Adams County, Essien, 45, was convicted of four felony counts — two counts of forgery, and one count each of theft by receiving and violating the Colorado Organized Crime Control Act.

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• Essien and nine others were indicted in March 2008 on charges connected with 34 real estate deals in Denver, Adams, Arapahoe and Jefferson counties. [...] Four others have pleaded guilty. The rest are expected to stand trial this summer.

• Between spring 2004 and spring 2007, Essien and his co-defendants allegedly used false invoices and shell corporations to obtain $10.9 million in mortgages, keeping $1.1 million of those funds, according to the indictment. [...] Those indicted allegedly used shell buyers to acquire houses at inflated prices, telling mortgage lenders that the houses had gotten improvements they actually hadn’t, the Attorney General’s Office said. Lenders were deceived into paying for the improvements. [...] Essien acted as the real estate broker in the deals.

For the story, see Man convicted in mortgage-fraud scheme.