A loan officer for a Florida mortgage company was sentenced to more than four years in prison for pleading guilty to committing wire fraud in a $9.2 million mortgage fraud scam.
According to court documents, Alejandro Curbelo was employed as a loan officer for Great Country Mortgage Bankers from February 2006 through July 2008.
In this role, he assisted in the sales and financing of condominium units at two Florida complexes—Dadeland Place and Pelican Cove on the Bay.
However, the borrowers who Curbelo assisted to obtain mortgage loans for these properties did not qualify due to insufficient income, high levels of debt and outstanding collections.
Curbelo admitted that he and others created and submitted false Federal Housing Administration loan applications to lenders on behalf of these borrowers. The defendants offered the borrowers cash back after closing as an incentive for them to purchase the housing units.
But these payments were not disclosed properly during the loan application process.
Court documents revealed that the closing costs were paid for the borrowers by interstate wire. After the loans closed, the borrowers failed to meet their monthly mortgage obligations and defaulted on their loans.
When the loans went into foreclosure, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), which insured the loans, was required to take title to the units. HUD had to therefore pay the outstanding loan balances to the lenders, which ended up being more than $9.2 million.
In addition to his prison term, Curbelo needs to pay restitution to HUD for the losses that resulted due to this fraudulent scheme.
