Mortgage Broker Gets 60 Months In Straw Buyer Mortgage Scam That Included Targeting Homeowners In Foreclosure With Bogus Sale Leaseback Ripoffs

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 MICAH MEYERS was sentenced [] in Manhattan federal court to 60 months in prison for his role in a sub-prime mortgage fraud scheme involving dozens of residential mortgages that totaled more than $10 million.

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• As part of the scheme, MEYERS identified properties for sale primarily in New York City and Long Island (the "target properties"). In some instances, he identified target properties whose homeowners were facing foreclosure, and fraudulently convinced them that selling their properties would be a way to pay off their debts and save their homes. In other instances, MEYERS identified target properties that he believed could be resold quickly, or "flipped," so that he would bear minimal risk of loss should the properties' values decline.

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• Once the purchase of the target properties had been funded, MEYERS often failed to make mortgage payments as he had promised, causing some of the straw buyers to default on their mortgages. As a result, mortgage lenders were forced either to foreclose on those properties or to re-purchase the properties from the straw buyers for less than the face amount of the loan.



• This often left the original homeowner -- who had been promised that selling his or her home would be a way to save it -- facing eviction. With respect to other target properties, MEYERS rented them to tenants and used the rent and other monies earned from the scheme to make mortgage payments on behalf of the straw buyers for a certain period of time before allowing the mortgages to go into default.

For the U.S. Attorney press release, see Manager Of Mortgage Brokerage Firm, Bridgewater Funding, LLC, Sentenced In Manhattan Federal Court To 60 Months In Prison For His Participation In A Multi-Million Dollar Mortgage Fraud Scheme.