A former monetary loan originator has pleaded guilty to scamming Chicago-location property homeowners in a reverse residence finance loan scheme that prosecutors say triggered $6 million in losses.
Mark Steven Diamond, 67, faces as much as 30 a very long time in jail after pleading guilty Tuesday to a wire fraud price for his function in scamming aged residence homeowners. The onetime LO, who was barred from originating loans 20 a long time prior to now, labored with brokers to rip-off over a dozen folks out of reverse residence loan proceeds to shell out for shoddy or nonexistent dwelling repairs.
In accordance to the plea settlement in an Illinois federal courtroom, Diamond admitted to defrauding 17 victims from ages 62 to 97 out of $839,000 in reverse mortgage funds. Feds declare the scheme bundled on the very least 80 victims.
Diamond, who stays in custody, faces as much as 30 a number of years in jail, and prosecutors have proposed a sentence of as much as 24 yrs. He’ll be sentenced in September, while 4 different co-schemers who’ve additionally pleaded guilty await sentencing.
Lawyers for Diamond didn’t return requests for comment Thursday.
The defendant was a licensed mortgage originator in Illinois and president of brokerage OSI Economic Products and providers, along with residence restore contractor firm United Household Solutions, in Chicago. The precise Illinois federal court docket docket previously barred him and OSI from originating loans in 2003.
Starting in 2006, Diamond used Cynthia Wallace, of Sauk Village, Illinois to solicit homeowners within the West Facet of Chicago, a predominantly African-American neighborhood with older residences that primarily weren’t refinanced.
Above the following 9 a long time, the pair satisfied owners, numerous with a scarcity of financial understanding, to undertake home repairs, which they offered as costing within the neighborhood of the full of each single house owner’s anticipated fairness. The duo, in accordance with particular person residence loan brokers, took out reverse mortgage monetary loans in owners’ names, falsifying recordsdata and illustration to every prospects and monetary establishments to drive the transactions ahead.
The dealer co-defendants labored for American Fidelity Fiscal Solutions and Illinois-centered Harbor Money Group, in accordance with the plea settlement. An Illinois regulator revoked Harbor’s family residence finance loan license in 2010 over its association with Diamond.
The nation’s senior populace holds a file sum of fairness of their residences, however proper now are hesitant to make use of it for more money, in accordance with Fannie Mae exploration.
