Defendants Sentenced In Louisiana Mortgage Fraud Case

Louisiana defendants were sentenced in connection with a mortgage fraud scheme in the Lafayette, Louisiana area that involved over 50 properties.

Anthony T Grishby, mortgage broker, Lafayette, Louisiana, was sentenced to 36 months in prison and 3 years supervised release;

Howard McZeal, appraiser, Lafayette, Louisiana, operated McZeal’s Appraisal Services (indicted only on conspiracy and bank fraud charges), was fined $10,000;

Erin Broussard, secretary, Lafayette Louisiana, was sentenced to 1 year probation;

Shawn Hollier, loan processor, Leonville, Louisiana, was sentenced to 1 year probation; and

Lori Moreau, loan processor, Scott, Louisiana, also received 1 year of probation.

As previously reported by Mortgage Fraud Blog, Grishby was the president and managing partner of Infinity Mortgage Services, Inc., a mortgage brokerage in Lafayette, Louisiana that employed Broussard, Renay Matthews, Tameshia Matthews, Hollier and Moreau. According to the indictment, other businesses utilized to facilitate Grishby�s illegal loan brokerage activity included GSA Financial Services, Inc., First Premier Financial Services, First Chance Home Lending and Eminem Enterprise.

According to the indictment, from April 1, 1999 through November 30, 2001, the defendants fraudulently prepared and submitted loan applications to Bank of America via Equicredit Corporation of America for purchases of properties located in Lafayette, Carencro, Opelousas, Ville Platte, Lake Charles, Mamou, Jeanerette, Erath, Scott, Eunice, New Iberia, Loureauville, St. Martinville and Rayne, Louisiana. The fraudulent applications included false financial figures, false attachments, false social security award letters, false W-2 forms, false work histories, false VOMs and other false documents for unqualified borrowers.

Purchase transactions were represented as refinance transactions and supported by VOMs prepared and submitted by the defendants. Appraisals reflected artificially inflated valued by omitting the true selling price and falsely listing the borrower as current owner. Also, according to the indictment, McZeal doctored photographs to be used in the appraisals to hide inferior qualities and manipulated the comparable sales process by choosing home sales in different geographical regions to arrive at needed amounts. Loan proceeds were paid to fictitious creditor entities including GSA, First Premier and First Chance. As part of the scheme, Grishby set up a fax machines to send VOMs to the Infinity office in order to make them look authentic. Borrowers were assessed excessive charges for credit reports and appraisals, one borrower being charged $650 for an appraisal report that actually cost $450, according to the indictment.

The indictment references involved loans on the following property addresses:

4581 Hwy 358, Opelousas, Louisiana

728 Halphen, Opelousas, Louisiana

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