Mortgage Fraud: Michael Arroyo Sentenced For Defrauding Banks in Shotgun Loan Scheme

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<h2>Real Estate Broker Sentenced to Prison for Role in Defrauding Banks in &dollar;3&period;5 Million &OpenCurlyQuote;Shotgun’ Loan Scheme<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p>NEWARK&comma; N&period;J&period; – A New York real estate broker and a Bergen County&comma; New Jersey&comma; homeowner were sentenced today for their respective roles in a &dollar;3&period;5 million scheme to use false information and simultaneous loan applications at multiple banks to fraudulently obtain home equity lines of credit&comma; a practice known as &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;shotgunning&comma;” U&period;S&period; Attorney Craig Carpenito announced&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Michael Arroyo&comma; 60&comma; of Bronx&comma; New York&comma; was sentenced to 21 months in prison&period; He previously pleaded guilty before U&period;S&period; District Judge John Michael Vazquez in Newark federal court to an information charging him with conspiracy to commit <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;fraudswatch&period;com&sol;banking-fraud-ways-of-cheating-and-stealing-banking&sol;">bank fraud<&sol;a>&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Rafael Popoteur&comma; 67&comma; of Ridgefield Park&comma; New Jersey&comma; was sentenced to three years of supervised release&comma; including one year of house arrest&period; He previously pleaded guilty before Judge Vazquez to an information charging him with conspiracy to commit bank fraud&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>According to documents filed in the case and statements made in court&colon;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>From 2012 through January 2014&comma; Arroyo and others conspired to fraudulently obtain multiple home equity lines of credit &lpar;HELOCs&rpar; from banks on residential properties in New Jersey and New York&comma; including a residential property on Havermeyer Avenue in the Bronx&period; In 2013&comma; Arroyo and others transferred ownership of the property to an individual living at the property and his family friend&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Arroyo and others then applied&comma; in the family friend’s name&comma; for two HELOCs from two banks using the Havermeyer Avenue property as collateral&period; They hid from the lenders the fact that the property was either already subject to senior liens that had not yet been recorded&comma; or that the same property was offered as collateral for a line of credit from another lender&period; The applications also falsely inflated the family friend’s income without his knowledge&period; In addition&comma; the equity in the property was far less than the amount of the HELOC loans that Arroyo and others applied for&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The victim banks eventually issued loans to the family friend in excess of &dollar;500&comma;000&period; After the victim banks deposited money into the family friend’s bank accounts&comma; portions of the funds were disbursed to Arroyo and others&period; Eventually&comma; the family friend defaulted on the two HELOC loans&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Popoteur was a client of Arroyo and another broker&period; From 2012 through January 2014&comma; Popoteur and the two real estate brokers&comma; and others&comma; conspired to fraudulently obtain multiple HELOCs from banks on a residential property in New Jersey&period; To get the banks to extend lines of credit they would not have otherwise approved&comma; Popoteur and the real estate brokers executed a quitclaim deed to transfer ownership of a Ridgefield Park&comma; New Jersey property to Popoteur&comma; who also lived at the property&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Popoteur and the real estate brokers then applied for three HELOCs from multiple banks using the Ridgefield Park&comma; New Jersey property as collateral&period; As the conspirators had done previously&comma; they hid from the lenders the fact that the properties offered as collateral were either already subject to senior liens that had not yet been recorded&comma; or that the same property was offered as collateral for a line of credit from another lender&period; The applications also contained false information concerning Popoteur’s income&comma; which was stated to be higher than his actual income&period; At the time the applications were made&comma; the value of the Ridgefield Park&comma; New Jersey property that was unencumbered by a <a class&equals;"wpil&lowbar;keyword&lowbar;link" href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;fraudswatch&period;com&sol;category&sol;mortgage&sol;" title&equals;"mortgage" data-wpil-keyword-link&equals;"linked" data-wpil-monitor-id&equals;"131">mortgage<&sol;a> was far less than the amount of the HELOC loans Popoteur and the others applied for&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The victim banks eventually issued loans to Popoteur in excess of &dollar;495&comma;000&period; After the victim banks funded the HELOCs and deposited money into Popoteur’s bank accounts&comma; Popoteur disbursed portions of it to the real estate brokers and others&period; In 2014&comma; Popoteur defaulted on all three HELOC loans&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The overall scheme resulted in &dollar;3&period;5 million in losses to the victim banks&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In addition to the prison term&comma; Judge Vazquez sentenced Arroyo five years of supervised release&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>U&period;S&period; Attorney Carpenito credited special agents of the Federal Housing Finance Agency &lpar;FHFA&rpar; – Office of Inspector General&comma; under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Steven Perez in Newark&comma; and special agents of the FBI&comma; under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Gregory W&period; Ehrie in Newark&comma; with the investigation leading to today’s sentencings&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The government is represented by Assistant U&period;S&period; Attorney Jason S&period; Gould of the U&period;S&period; Attorney’s Office Criminal Division in Newark and Special Assistant U&period;S&period; Attorney Kevin DiGregory of the FHFA&comma; Office of the Inspector General&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;justice&period;gov&sol;usao-nj&sol;pr&sol;real-estate-broker-sentenced-prison-role-defrauding-banks-35-million-shotgun-loan-scheme">Original PressReleases&&num;8230&semi;<&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;

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