Bank Fraud Used To Sell Alexandria House Leads To Guilty Plea

ALEXANDRIA, VA — A fraudulent short sale of a Maryland woman's Alexandria home led to a guilty plea in federal court Wednesday.

According to federal prosecutors, Maria Esperansa Salgado, 64, planned the short sale scheme from at least August 2012 to April 2019. The scheme involved defrauding a mortgage lender into agreeing to the short sale of her Alexandria home and using the identity of an unaware victim to get a mortgage.

A short sale is usually when a homeowner tried to avoid a foreclosure by selling the home for less than what's owed on the mortgage. But with the fraudulent short sale, Salgado intended to keep the property and pocket the profits.

The property used in the fraudulent sale was 1100 Beverley Drive in Alexandria's North Ridge neighborhood, according to court records. Salgado and her brother had lived in the Alexandria property for about ten years since buying it in 2002.

Prosecutors say Salgado filed a Chapter 7 petition for bankruptcy in 2013 to discharge debts. She then used a victim's identity to obtain a mortgage from a lender and entered fraudulent sales contracts with straw purchasers and the victim. A straw purchaser typically buys a home on behalf of another person when a buyer cannot complete a transaction. That meant the fraudulent sales contracts made it appear that the straw purchasers and the victim were buying the house on behalf of themselves.

Salgado did a fraudulent refinance of the property and kept the proceeds in 2015. In 2019, Salgado used a nominee owner to sell the property to a third-party buyer, and both received the proceeds of the fraudulent sale. The proceeds went to paying off the remaining mortgage loan balance, and the rest helped her buy a new property in Fort Washington, Maryland.

The mortgage scheme resulted in a $146,188 loss to the lender. As part of a plea agreement, Salgado agreed to pay restitution and forfeit the proceeds of the fraudulent sale.

She could face up to 30 years in prison when sentenced. Sentencing is scheduled for Feb. 21, 2024.