Meriden Man Sentenced for Involvement in Mortgage Fraud Scheme

A Meriden man was one of two people sentenced to prison Thursday for their respective roles in an extensive mortgage fraud scheme related to the purchases of numerous homes in New Haven, according to U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman, District of New Jersey.

Kwame Nkrumah, a/k/a Roger Woodson, 57, of Meriden, was sentenced Thursday to 48 months in prison by U.S. District Judge Janet C. Hall in New Haven federal court.

Charmaine Davis, 54, of Waterbury, also was sentenced Sept. 6  to 24 months in prison in connection with the same case. 

Nkrumah previously pleaded guilty before Judge Hall to an indictment charging him with conspiracy to commit mail, bank, and wire fraud in two separate mortgage fraud schemes from September 2006 to November 2008. 

According to documents filed in these cases and statements made in court:

Nkrumah, his conspirators, and others, received millions of dollars in residential real estate loans by submitting false loan applications, fictitious leases, and false down payments to mortgage lenders. 

Nkrumah and his conspirators hid from mortgage lenders the true sales price of the houses through, among other things, the use of two HUD-1 forms, only one of which was sent to the lender, and secret contract addenda. The buyers often received payments at closing, but those payments were not disclosed to the mortgage lender.

The conspirators entered into sales contracts with property sellers for prices that were higher than the actual prices the sellers received at closing. The conspirators then executed contract addenda that reflected the actual, lower prices. While the sales contracts bearing the contract price would be disclosed to mortgage lenders, the contract addenda were never disclosed.

Separately, Nkrumah pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud mortgage lenders in connection with the purchase of other New Haven properties in early 2007. According to court documents filed in this case and related cases, Nkrumah and others submitted fraudulent loan applications, HUD-1 forms, employment verification forms and other documentation to mortgage lenders to obtain financing to purchase properties. 

Nkrumah submitted multiple false employment verification forms indicating that an individual borrower was employed as an office manager at All World Realty Enterprise and/or Homesavers LLC when, in fact, those statements were not true.

In addition to the prison term, Judge Hall sentenced Nkrumah and Davis each to five years of supervised release. She ordered Nkrumah to forfeit $113,080 and pay restitution of $2,939. Davis was fined $6,000 and ordered to forfeit $39,434.