Local Man Pleads Guilty to Part in Mortgage Fraud Schemes

A Glenn Dale man pleaded guilty last week to conspiring to commit wire fraud in two mortgage fraud schemes that resulted in more than $2 million in losses to mortgage lenders, according to a statement released by the U.S. State’s Attorney’s office.

Emeka Udeze, 38, was a licensed mortgage broker at the time of the crimes, according to his plea agreement.

Udeze admitted that, “in both schemes, he submitted fraudulent mortgage loan applications for buyers, inflating the buyer’s income and creating bogus employment information in an effort to qualify these individuals for loans that they otherwise were unqualified to secure,” according to a press release.

In some cases, the mortgages went quickly into default after no payments were made. In others, borrowers made payments until they no longer were able to do so.

The first scheme took place from 2006 to December 2008. Udeze and his co-conspirators would contact people with low to moderate incomes who wanted to buy homes and fraudulently inflate the incomes and “create bogus employment information” to secure larger home loans.

Udeze and his co-conspirators profited from these transactions through loan origination fees, commissions, broker’s fees and other fees, according to the release.

The second scheme, which took place from May 2009 to January 2010, Udeze and others arranged for individuals to buy and sell property to make fraudulent profits. Some of their methods included using fraudulent loan applications, failing to disburse settlement funds and arranging for the funds to be disbursed to shell companies owned by Udeze and his co conspirators.

In all, Udeze brokered 20 fraudulent transactions that cost banks a total of $2,013,478. He has been ordered to pay restitution in that amount. He is also facing up to 30 years in jail and $1 million fine for each of the two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, according to the statement.

A date has not been set for his sentencing.