Raymond Zwego, Jr. expects to be a witness for the government when the case against him and 10 other defendants including former Jackson County, Missouri Executive Katheryn J. Shields and her husband, Philip F. Cardarella goes to trial according to his Motion for Release on Bond filed with the court. In that motion, he states that he is not a flight risk as revealed by his 'pretrial history' and that he pesents to threat or detriment to society 'if properly supervised.'
The government's response to that Motion avers that as Zwego's detention is based on a stipulated probable cause finding the he violated conditions of supervised release, there is therefore no set of conditions that would assure his appearance at trial or the safety of the community. That response further states that the the offense charged against Zwego represents one of many such mortgage fraud offenses committed while he was on supervised release and that the estimated loss associated with his mortgage fraud offenses exceeds $1 million. The report states '[w]hen a defendant is willing to commit new crimes while on supervised release, there is little reason to believe that he will refrain from committing new crimes if he is released on bond pending trial.' The bank fraud conviction that resulted in the supervised release violation, according to the response, was Zwego's federal conviction; his prior convictions being a 1994 wire fraud conviction in Kansas and a 1979 conviction for making false statements to financial institutions and interstate transportation of forged securities. Zwego also has prior state convictions for theft and stealing.
The Kansas City Star reported that the Shields-Cardella case is similar to other Zwego deals and that the FBI is looking into as many as 60 more questionable home sales.
Zwego is charged in all 12 counts of the indictment, including one charge of conspiracy and 11 counts of wire fraud. The maximum sentence for the conspiracy charge is 5 years imprisonment while each of the wire fraud charges carry maximum sentences of 20 years imprisonment.
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.