Dorothy Kawa, 36, Chicago, Illinois pleaded to one count of wire fraud and one count of money laundering. Kawa was the owner of a mortgage brokerage firm - Northwest Fidelity Mortgage Corp., Morton Grove, Illinois. She was indicted, along with 10 other people, in April 2004 in connection with a mortgage fraud scheme that resulted in lender losses of $9.6M.
The scheme, allegedly masterminded by Jan Rozycka and Michael Skatulski, involved the recordation of false mortgage releases to properties. Straw buyers and straw sellers (paid $2,000 for their participation) would appear at mortgage closings with false identification and mortgages would be obtained for ‘purchase’ of the properties. The proceeds would be divided between the participants.
Kawa admitted that she acted as a mortgage broker and arranged loans for people posing as property buyers so the scheme's leaders could get the proceeds.
The wire fraud count carries a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison and the money-laundering count carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.
Five other defendants have pleaded guilty:
Ignacy Kondrad, 50, Chicago, Illinois - one count of money laundering;
Zbigniew Recko, 36, Chicago, Illinois - one count of wire fraud;
Jan Rozycka, 43, Chicago, Illinois - two counts of wire fraud;
Waldemar Wilkiewicz, 30, Chicago, Illinois - one count of wire fraud;
Julita Uramowska, 32, Western Springs, Illinois - one count of wire fraud.
The remaining five defendants (Michael Skatulski, Magdalena Banasik, Robert Karolkiewicz, Ioan Corsiuc and Bozena Sauciuc) are scheduled to be tried on July 18, 2005.
Rachel Dollar, the editor of Mortgage Fraud Blog is an attorney and Certified Mortgage Banker who handles litigation for lending institutions and secondary market investors.