Mortgage Broker Pleads Guilty in $2M Fraud Schemes

Greenbelt, Maryland – Emeka Udeze, 38, of Bowie, Maryland, pleaded guilty today to conspiring to commit wire fraud in connection with two separate mortgage fraud schemes which resulted in over $2,013,478 of actual losses to mortgage lenders.

The schemes involved falsified home buyers’ information to generate fraudulent loan applications, in order to collect commissions, origination and broker’s fees.

According to his plea, Udeze was a licensed mortgage broker who worked at various companies, including Newgate Mortgage, owned by co-defendant Shola Risikat Balogun, and EWA Mortgage. Udeze also registered a Maryland company called E&T Consulting, Inc., which he claimed was established to provide general services, among other things.

Udeze admitted that in both schemes, he submitted fraudulent mortgage loan applications for buyers, inflating the buyer’s income and creating bogus employment information in an effort to qualify these individuals for loans that they otherwise were unqualified to secure.

In the first scheme, from at least 2006 through at least December 2008, Udeze, Balogun and others contacted individuals who wished to purchase homes. The buyers, who typically had moderate to low incomes, provided the conspirators with accurate income and employment information. Udeze and others then submitted fraudulent loan applications on behalf of the buyers, inflated the buyer’s income and created bogus employment information in an effort to secure the loan.

In a separate scheme, from May 2009 to January 2010, Udeze, co-defendant Niesha Williams, and others, arranged for individuals to buy and sell real estate so they could improperly obtain money from the transactions. Udeze, Williams and others submitted fraudulent loan applications, created multiple versions of settlement statements to deceive lenders, lien holders, buyers and sellers; and arranged for proceeds from mortgage transactions to be disbursed to shell companies created by Udeze and others in order to disguise that the money was really for their benefit.

For example, Udeze made arrangements for an individual, C.H., to purchase 4853 Brookstone Terrace, Unit 29, Bowie, Maryland 20720 from an individual with the initials D.H. Udeze also had a personal relationship with C.H., who trusted him. Udeze admitted that he prepared and sent a fraudulent loan application to the lender, which included false statements about C.H.’s employment, income, her bank accounts, and the bank account balances, so that C.H. could obtain a loan of approximately $250,000 and purchase the property.