This story is from the Seattle Times. A federal indictment has been issued for a Bellevue loan officer and his assistant. 

A former loan officer at a Bellevue mortgage company and his assistant have been indicted on a charge of conspiracy to commit wire fraud in a scheme that prosecutors say involved using straw buyers to purchase dozens of homes at inflated prices and siphoning off the extra cash for their own use.

Christopher Brooks and Amani Moss allegedly obtained more than $27 million in fraudulent loans for the purchase of at least 54 homes beginning in 2005, according to an indictment unsealed this morning.

The charges allege that they recruited straw buyers, who would allow the men to falsify loan papers for them. At the same time, Brooks and Moss would use a realtor, who is identified in the indictment by the initials “L.A.,” to find home sellers who were willing to overstate the purchase price of their homes. The straw buyers were paid between $7,000 and $10,000 for each transaction, the indictment says.

Brooks, who worked for America Mortgage in Bellevue, would then prepare and submit the false loan papers to several lenders in the area, according to court papers.

The difference between the inflated price and the actual purchase price of the home ranged from $30,000 to $778,000 per home, and the charges allege that money was funneled through a business owned by Moss, Peachtree Development, and into their pockets..

Home sellers, if your home is not selling and someone from our industry approaches you with an idea to take your home off the market and relist at a much, much higher price, please turn the person in to his or her regulator. If you are not sure who the regulator is, contact one of us and we can point you in the right direction.

The DFI Licensee database shows America Mortgage in Bellevue as a licensed mortgage broker. I wonder how many of these loans went into early payment default and how many the broker was asked to buy back from the lender.

In order to commit fraud at this level, the Realtor and mortgage broker would have had some help from an appraiser as well as an escrow closer.