Anna Essex Thorne, 37, Newark, New Jersey pled guilty to a one-count information charging her with conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Thorne is facing up to 5 years in prison, a $250,000 fine, and up to three years of supervised release following any prison term. In connection with her guilty plea, Thorne stipulated to a loss amount of $220,816.99 for restitution and sentencing purposes.

According to the Indictment and court records, Anna Thorne was involved in a mortgage fraud conspiracy along with Fabian Thorne, Sterling Palmer, and others from in or about June 2005 through in or about July 2006. During that time period, Anna Thorne worked at Prestige Mortgage along with Palmer, Fabian Thorne, and others. Through Prestige Mortgage, the conspirators arranged to purchase homes from people in financial trouble through a "home relief" program offering the home owners an opportunity to sell their home to someone associated with Prestige Mortgage in an attempt to save the home from foreclosure.

Anna Thorne stipulated, however, the home relief program was executed without full disclosure of how the transaction worked to the victim homeowners and a significant portion of the equity in the victim’s homes was taken by Anna Thorne and her co-conspirators in the transactions. Furthermore, numerous false representations were made on the mortgage documentation to allow the loans to go through. Anna Thorne agreed in connection with her guilty plea that if the true nature of the transactions had been revealed to the mortgage lender, the loans would not have been approved.