Friday, August 21, 2009

Indianapolis Feds Indict Ex-Waiter For Alleged Role In Running Massive Mortgage Fraud Scam Involving 110+ Fraudulent Real Estate Deals

In Indianapolis, Indiana, The Indianapolis Star reports:
  • A former waiter who became a high-profile Indianapolis real estate investor in the easy-money era of the 2000s has been indicted by a federal grand jury in a mortgage fraud case that set off mass home foreclosures on the Eastside. Robert Andrew Penn, 44, was charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud and conspiracy to launder money, the U.S. attorney's office in Indianapolis announced Monday.

  • Penn, now living in Naples, Fla., had owned and operated several businesses that borrowed $12.6 million from 2003 to 2005 to carry out what officials allege were 114 fraudulent real estate transactions, including the highly publicized Windsor Village deal. Its collapse pushed dozens of homes in the modest Eastside Indianapolis neighborhood into foreclosure.

For more, see Investor indicted in mortgage fraud (Case is linked to string of foreclosures on Eastside).