Hafeeza Naba, 28, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania was sentenced to six months house arrest, five years probation was fined $3,000.
Ayanna Wright, 26, Maple Shade, New Jersey, was sentenced to six months house arrest and five years probation.
Both women pleaded guilty to wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud in connection with allegations that participated in a scheme to obtain money from a false real estate transaction.
The two women were indicted in June 2004, along with Dean Scott Lee, Dorian Baker and George Chavis. According to press reports, the group conspired to sell a house in Cherry Hill, New Jersey to fictitious buyers. Without the knowledge of the home's actual owners, the conspirators arranged for an appraisal of the property, applied for a mortgage, created a false credit report, and created false driver's licenses and Social Security cards that they planned to present at closing. They then attended the closing and attempted to obtain $320,000 in proceeds.
According to court documents, Wright was a former employee of Cendant Mortgage Corporation and used her knowledge of the company to assist Dean Lee, her boyfriend, in implementing
the fictitious sale. Wright assisted Dean Lee with the mortgage application process and recruited her cousin, Naba, to impersonate one of the legitimate owners of the property at the fictitious closing. She accompanied Lee and Naba to the title agency where the closing was held, where she waited with Lee in the title agency’s parking lot during the closing itself. Naba acted as a property owner at the fictitious closing. According to court documents, she traveled to Philadelphia to obtain false identification for use at the closing, practiced the signature of the legitimate owner she was impersonating and applied crazy glue to her fingertips in order to avoid leaving fingerprints on documents at closing. Naba attended the closing and signed the name of the legitimate owner on the closing documents
The conspirators were arrested after leaving the closing.
The other defendants in the case have already been sentenced:
Lee was sentenced to serve 6 years and 11 months in prison after pleading guilty for his role in the scheme. At the time the fraud scheme was perpetrated, Lee was facing charges for the murder of Santiago Peralta in South Camden, New Jersey. The U.S. Attorney’s Office argued that Lee hoped to use the proceeds of the mortgage fraud scheme to post bail on the charges. He was convicted of the murder and is serving a 64-year term in state prison.
Baker was sentenced to 18 months in prison. Baker worked for UPS, shared a home with Lee and intercepted some of the documents needed for the title transfer.
Chavis was sentenced to 41 months in prison. He also posed as a seller of the property.


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.