NY Man Gets 7 Yrs For Swiping $6M In Escrow Cash Due To Existing Lien Holders In R/E Deals; Ran F'closure Bailout Racket Targeting Strapped Homeowners

From the Office of the U.S. Attorney (New York City):

• PREET BHARARA, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced [] that IRSHAD RAMZAN, a/k/a "Tony," a former mortgage broker who supervised the operations of Queens-based Platinum Funding, was sentenced to seven years in prison for his roles in a scheme to steal over $6 million in the proceeds of home mortgage loans issued by various banks for the purchase of residential properties, which funds were supposed to be used to pay off existing mortgages on the properties, and in another scheme to obtain home mortgage loans from banks under false pretenses by arranging straw purchases of those homes,(1) thereby generating tens of thousands of dollars in unwarranted fees for RAMZAN and Platinum Funding.

For the U.S. Attorney press release, see Mortgage Broker Sentenced In Manhattan Federal Court To Seven Years In Jail For Stealing Over $6M In Mortgage Loan Proceeds.

(1) In this scam, Ramzan tricked homeowners who were having problems making payments on existing home loans (in what presumably were sale leaseback, equity stripping deals), often to the point of facing foreclosure, to sell their houses to so-called "straw purchasers." In doing so, Ramzan misrepresented the nature of these "bailout" transactions to the lenders that financed these transactions and, thereby, defrauded these lenders, the press release states.