Closing Attorney for Mortgage Acceptance Corporation Sentenced to 12 Months
Allen J. Meyer, 58, real estate lawyer, Brick, Monmouth County, New Jersey was sentenced to 12 months in federal prison and ordered to pay $566,338 for his role in a mortgage fraud conspiracy which defrauded the federal government of more than $500,000.
On October 22, 2003, Meyer plead guilty to one-count of conspiracy to make false statements.
Meyer was retained by others to serve as the closing attorney for Mortgage Acceptance Corporation, a now-defunct mortgage company which was located on Long Island, N.Y and headed by Barry Fauntleroy. In his capacity as closing attorney, Meyer admitted that he falsified dozens of mortgage loan applications and related documents on behalf of unqualified buyers. The applications and documents were submitted to the federal government in order to qualify for federal insurance for the loans.
According to the Information filed against Meyer, he engaged with others in fraudulent land flips, in which residential real property was purchased by unqualified and ineligible “straw buyers”. Meyer admitted that his co-conspirators then quickly flipped the properties at inflated prices to third-parties who had obtained mortgage loans insured through HUD. The fraudulent transactions involved properties in Asbury Park, Neptune, Long Branch, Lakewood, as well as other locations.
The investigation relating to others involved in the conspiracy remains active and ongoing.
According to an article in the Asbury Park Press:
An Asbury Park Press investigation found that Barry Fauntleroy’s brother, Thomas Fauntleroy, and his associates bought at least 58 houses in poorer sections of Asbury Park, Neptune and Long Branch between October 1996 and March 1998, selling them quickly at inflated prices to first-time buyers and using loans approved by the mortgage company.As a result of the Press series, which ran in the summer of 1998, Barry Fauntleroy’s company was banned from making any more Federal Housing Authority-backed loans without extra oversight. The company subsequently shut down.
Forty-two of the loans were insured by the FHA. Almost all of the buyers were black or Latino.
Kirsch wouldn’t comment on the Fauntleroy brothers’ involvement, although the initials B.F. and T.F. are named as co-conspirators in the document charging Meyer.
