James Bayfield, Bank Fraud, New York 2023

A Queens man has been convicted of masterminding a multi-million-dollar mortgage fraud scheme that defrauded financial institutions in New York, Grimy Times has learned.

James Bayfield, 46, a self-described mortgage specialist, was found guilty of all four counts charging bank fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bank fraud by a federal jury in Brooklyn on December 21, 2023.

The jury’s verdict came after a two-week trial before United States District Judge Eric N. Vitaliano. Bayfield is the sixth and final defendant convicted in this case.

According to prosecutors, Bayfield and his co-conspirators caused mortgage loan applications with false information to be submitted to lending institutions in connection with the purchase of residential properties located within the Eastern District of New York. These applications contained fraudulently inflated purchase prices, as well as false information about the assets and income of the purchasers of the properties, many of whom were being compensated as part of the scheme to act as straw purchasers.

To carry out their scheme, the defendant conducted simultaneous purchases and sales of the properties, sometimes called “flips,” in an effort to conceal their criminal involvement and to inflate the value of the properties. For example, a conspirator would purchase a property from a homeowner. That same day, the conspirator would sell the property to a straw purchaser at an inflated value.

As a result of the false applications and appraisals, the lending institutions were fraudulently induced to issue millions of dollars of mortgage loans secured by properties that had inflated appraisal values to individuals who had insufficient income and assets to qualify for the mortgage loan. In many instances, the straw purchasers and the other borrowers failed to make required mortgage payments to the lending institutions, which caused the mortgage loans to be placed into default status.

At sentencing, Bayfield faces a sentence of up to 20 years in prison.

Related Federal Cases