Dale Scott Heineman, 48, Union City, California was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge William Alsup to a prison term of 21 years, eight months and Kurt F. Johnson, 45, Sunnyvale, California to a 25-year term after a jury convicted them in November, 2007 of 35 counts of mail fraud.

As previously reported by Mortgage Fraud Blog, Dale Scott Heineman and Kurt F. Johnson, principals with the Dorean Group, were found guilty by a federal jury of all remaining counts in the indictment.

Heineman, and Johnson, as well as four Dorean Group "brokers" were indicted by a California grand jury in a 68-count superseding indictment charging mail fraud, bank fraud, conspiracy to commit mail fraud, wire fraud and bank fraud, and contempt of court. The superseding indictment added charges of mail fraud, bank fraud, and conspiracy to commit mail fraud, wire fraud and bank fraud against the following four Dorean Group brokers:

William Julian, 42, Cayce, South Carolina,

Farrel J. LeCompte, Jr., 35, Kingwood, Texas,

Sara J. Magoon, 29, Hamilton, Montana, and

Charles Dewey Tobias, 58, of Longwood, Florida.

The principals of the Dorean Group were Dale Scott Heineman, Union City, California, and Kurt F. Johnson, Sunnyvale, California. They, along with the Dorean Group and four of its brokers, were charged with operating a debt elimination scheme whereby fraudulent documents are recorded as part of their clients' titles to allegedly transfer lenders' secured interests in the properties when the corresponding mortgage and home equity loans had not been paid. With this fraudulently-generated free and clear title, some clients, at the direction of the Dorean Group, obtained hundreds of thousands of dollars in home equity loans from independent lenders.

Heineman and Johnson also face contempt of court charges for violating a restraining order and preliminary injunction which prohibited the Dorean Group from engaging in any activities related to its mortgage elimination scheme.

The charges in the superseding indictment relate to 24 properties in California, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas, Utah and Washington with a value of over $6 million. The FBI continues to investigate more than 550 properties throughout 35 states with a potential value of greater than $88 million in loans that may have been affected by this alleged scheme. The FBI is also investigating properties in 19 California counties affected by this alleged scheme.