Frank J. Mazzarese, 32, Rockford, Illinois, and Marie E. Caltagerone, 65, Rockford, Illinois, each pleaded guilty December 20, 2006, to conspiring to commit mail fraud and to make material false statements to a federal agency (HUD).
Mazzarese was employed as a loan officer at Prism Mortgage in Rockford, Illinois, which later became RBC Mortgage Company, from September 2001 through March 2003. From March 2003 through May 2004, Mazzarese was employed as a loan officer at Irwin Mortgage in Rockford, Illinois. Caltagerone owns and operates Caltagerone Accounting in Rockford, Illinois.
In pleading guilty, Caltagerone admitted that she frequently referred her accounting customers to Mazzarese to obtain loans for home purchases and to re-finance their existing loans. Both Mazzarese and Caltagerone admitted that many of Mazzarese’s loan customers worked for cash or had otherwise insufficient verifiable income to qualify for loans. They both further admitted that, in order to deceive private lenders into providing loans for these customers, they caused false employment information to be submitted to the lenders. Some of these loans were later submitted to HUD for FHA insurance.
Specifically, Caltagerone admitted that, at the request of Mazzarese, she created fraudulent “Verification of Employment†forms. These fraudulent forms listed false income figures for the loan applicants. Caltagerone further admitted that she also created fraudulent pay stubs and false W-2s. Mazzarese admitted that, after he received the false documents from Caltagerone, he submitted them to the private lenders and HUD in his customers’ loan application files. According to his plea agreement, between September 7, 2001 and May 18, 2004, Mazzarese submitted a total of twelve loan files which contained fraudulent employment documents prepared by Caltagerone.
The sentencing hearings for both Mazzarese and Caltagerone have been scheduled for March 30, 2007. The charge to which both defendants pleaded guilty carries a maximum sentence of up to 5 years of imprisonment, a fine of up to $250,000, and restitution
They both will receive too light of a sentence.
The lack of honesty and the level (high!) of deceit among too many folk who are associated with the lending industry is sickening. And my friends, what you have read here is but the tip of the icebert.