Ringleader In Cash Back Mortgage Scam Gets 30 Years; Used Phony Repair Invoices, Shell Corporations To Skim $1.1M From Closing Proceeds On 34 Homes

In Denver, Colorado, The Denver Post reports:

• The ringleader of a multimillion-dollar mortgage-fraud ring was sentenced [...] to 30 years in the Colorado Department of Corrections. Uto Essien, 45, a Nigerian national, will be deported after completing his sentence. Essien was convicted in July of four felony counts related to the use of shell corporations and false invoices to skim money off the top of nearly three dozen real estate transactions. Essien's conviction resulted from a 45-count, 10-person indictment handed down in March 2008. The indictment alleged that Essien and his colleagues fraudulently obtained $10.9 million in mortgages to buy 34 properties in Adams, Denver and Jefferson counties between April 28, 2004, and Dec. 29, 2006.

• Essien and his colleagues then skimmed $1.1 million from the real estate transactions, which they said paid for repairs the shell corporations never did to the properties. Essien and his colleagues used false invoices from the shell corporations to justify the payments. The jury convicted Essien of violating the Colorado Organized Crime Control Act and of two counts of forgery and theft by receiving. According to the indictment, Essien, while acting as a real estate broker, negotiated the property acquisitions and directed the buyers to create the shell corporations. Nine of Essien's co-defendants have either pleaded guilty or been convicted following a jury trial.

Source: 30-year term for leader of fraud ring (Nigerian Uto Essian was convicted of skimming off the top of real estate deals).