Louis LaDonna, West Islip, New York, was charged in a 13-count indictment with scheming to defraud lenders out of approximately two and a half million dollars from the late fall of 2006 through the spring of 2007. Judge James Hudson set bail for LaDonna at $75,000 cash or $250,000 bond.
LaDonna, operating out of his home as LaDonna Properties, allegedly inflated the value of single family houses in West Islip, Lindenhurst and North Babylon and procured “straw buyers” with fake documentation overstating their incomes to qualify for no down payment mortgages. LaDonna’s buyers made two or three payments to the lender before walking away and leaving each home in foreclosure.
Marie Poulard, 50, East Quogue, New York and Frank Spindel, 49, Miller Place, New York, were arrested by district attorney detectives Monday and Tuesday, December 8 and 9, 2008 respectively, and charged with first degree grand larceny, a class B felony. According to Suffolk County District Attorney Spota, the couple swindled a now-defunct mortgage lender, American Brokers Conduit of Melville, into $1.2 million dollars in loans (a first mortgage of $927,000 and a second mortgage of $247,000) to buy a 1.4 acre property in East Quogue with a pool and tennis court.
“The investigation has found Poulard and Spindel used a straw purchaser – a man who earned $20,000 a year parking cars in New York City –who filed false documentation with American Brokers Conduit mortgage company that he earned $23,000 A MONTH as a regional sales manager for a Lindenhurst company selling high end boats”, said Spota. The district attorney noted Spindel was paid over $25,000 in commissions for the deal.
The arrests were part of an ongoing investigation of mortgage fraud that has found nine million dollars in fraudulent mortgages and equity thefts secured with non-existent and overstated assets by scammers to obtain fraudulent mortgages. Thus far the investigation has resulted in the arrests of 27 suspects, according to Spota.
Spota said prosecutors in the Mortgage Fraud Unit of the Economic Crimes Bureau have secured nine indictments this year and are currently working 30 mortgage fraud investigations.
“What we’re seeing in Suffolk County is an explosion of fraud involving, depending on the scheme, every facet of the mortgage process; from applicants to the mortgage brokers to bank employees to appraisers,” Spota said.
The mortgage fraud investigation also uncovered a scheme involving mortgage brokers John Tuozzo, 43, Merrick, New York and Steven Winick, 40, Syosset, New York and former Citibank employee Yvonne Rojas, 30, Brentwood, New York. Tuozzo and Winick are alleged to have used false documents provided by Rojas, including phony verifications of bank balances, to get their clients qualified for mortgages. To date, DA Spota said, mortgage fraud unit detectives have found evidence involving Rojas in 96 fraudulent mortgage schemes and the issuance of false verifications of deposit for over a dozen different mortgage brokers. Rojas, Winnick and Tuozzo are charged with falsifying business records in the first Degree and issuing false financial statements.
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.