FEDERAL

This was a joint investigation with HUD-OIG,
the Secret Service, IRS-CI, Treasury Office of the
Inspector General, and Immigration and Customs
Enforcement-Homeland Security Investigations.
Inflated Loans and Kickbacks, Dallas, Texas
On May 30, 2013, in the U.S. District Court for the
Eastern District of Texas, Ronzell Mitchell pled guilty
to mail fraud. On June 4, 2013, and June 12, 2013,
respectively, Christi Wyatt pled guilty to conspiracy
to commit mail fraud and Lacie Devine was indicted
for conspiracy to commit mail fraud in the same
court.
From about March 2008 through February 2010,
Mitchell and Wyatt conspired with others to recruit
buyers to purchase properties from sellers at inflated
sales prices, to help the buyers obtain mortgage
loans based on these inflated sales prices, to cause
the sellers to kickback portions of the loan proceeds,
to pay portions of the loan proceeds to the buyers,
and to cause the escrow officer not to disclose these
payments to the lender. Mitchell was involved with
fraudulent transactions on seven homes and Wyatt
on eight homes. Devine, an escrow officer, is alleged
to have been involved in several of these transactions.
The enterprises bought a number of the loans, and
the scheme caused losses of $1.6 million to Fannie
Mae and $240,000 to Freddie Mac.
This was a joint investigation with the FBI, HUD-
OIG, and the Texas Department of Insurance Fraud
Unit.
Real Estate Company Uses Straw Buyers to Flip
Properties, Chicago, Illinois
On May 30, 2013, Steven Bartlett, owner of SSB
Real Estate Solutions; Robert Lattas, an attorney; and
Nicholas Burge, a loan originator, were indicted in
the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of
Illinois for mail and wire fraud.
From January 2008 to January 2009, Bartlett,
Lattas, and Burge allegedly used straw buyers to
obtain $1.5 million in loans. The properties subject
to the loans were then sold at inflated prices in a
loan origination and property flipping scheme. The
enterprises purchased several of the loans and suffered
losses of $890,000.
This was a joint investigation with HUD-OIG and
the Postal Inspection Service (USPIS).
Indictments and Guilty Pleas in a $2 Million
Diversion, Denver, Colorado
On May 16, 2013, Michael Martinez, Katherine
Norman, and Benjamin Velasquez were indicted for
theft and forgery in the City and County of Denver
District Court, Colorado. On June 3, 2013, Norman
pled guilty to theft, and she was sentenced to five
years of supervised release on July 15, 2013. Martinez
pled guilty to theft on July 15, 2013.
From 2010 to 2011, Martinez, operator of Martinez
Investments, and Norman, his bookkeeper, devised
a scheme to divert funds designated for specific
real estate transactions. The scheme resulted in
over $2 million in losses by Quantum Title, one
of Martinez Investments’ holdings. Martinez,
Norman, and Velasquez, a straw buyer, also allegedly
committed loan origination fraud on three enterpriseowned
properties by acting as straw buyers and
providing false employment, income, and residency
documents to lenders. As a result, Freddie Mac lost
$178,000.
This was a joint investigation with the Colorado State
Attorney General’s Office.
Company Owners Plead Guilty to Conspiracy to
Commit Mortgage Fraud, New Haven, Connecticut
On May 14, 2013, in the U.S. District Court for
the District of Connecticut, Kwame Nkrumah
(also known as Roger Woodson) pled guilty to
Semiannual Report to the Congress • April 1, 2013–September 30, 2013 25