Cecil Sylvester Chester, Mortgage Fraud, Maryland 2024

Cecil Sylvester Chester, 70, of Mitchellville, Maryland, is headed to federal prison for his role in a brazen $1.4 million mortgage fraud scheme that exploited Baltimore’s struggling housing market. U.S. District Judge James K. Bredar sentenced Chester to two years behind bars, followed by three years of supervised release, after he admitted to orchestrating the fraudulent purchase of seven city row houses using straw buyers and falsified loan documents. The court also ordered Chester to pay restitution of at least $1.483 million—final damages still pending.

The scheme, which ran from February 2008 to July 2009, preyed on financially vulnerable individuals with no real estate experience. Chester, an accountant operating out of Hyattsville, Maryland, lured in straw purchasers by promising they wouldn’t need down payments or closing costs. He claimed tenants would cover mortgage payments through rent—rent he would collect and manage. None of it was true. The buyers were set up to fail while Chester and his co-conspirators cashed out.

At the center of the scam was a network of inflated property values and forged financial documents. Co-conspirator Andreas Tamaris flipped distressed homes in Highlandtown, while real estate agents Michael Camphor and Christopher A. Kwegan helped locate and overvalue properties. One Baltimore row house, worth about $75,000, was listed at $250,000. Kwegan walked away with over $100,000 from that single sale and kicked back $40,000 to Chester for his role in sealing the deal.

Chester and his crew falsified employment records, income statements, and asset documentation to push unqualified buyers through the mortgage pipeline. They lied to lenders, claiming straw purchasers intended to live in the homes—when in reality, no one ever moved in. Down payments and closing costs were secretly funded by Tamaris and others, then repaid from loan proceeds at closing, leaving lenders holding the bag when the loans inevitably defaulted.

At every closing, Chester personally brought the patsies, made them sign sworn affidavits stating they were owner-occupants and had not borrowed funds—knowing full well the documents were lies. The fraud unraveled when mortgage lenders began seeing wave after wave of defaults on properties they couldn’t sell, sparking investigations by federal authorities who traced the paper trail straight to Chester’s office on New Hampshire Avenue.

The case was prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Maryland, with investigative muscle from the FBI, HUD’s Office of Inspector General, and the U.S. Secret Service – Baltimore Field Office. United States Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein called the scheme a predatory assault on both the housing market and vulnerable individuals. Chester now faces years in prison while victims—and taxpayers—foot the bill.