Soto Trio, Mortgage Fraud, Massachusetts 2013

Three members of a Lynn family were sentenced today for their roles in a mortgage fraud scheme, which netted the Sotos over $1 million.

The Soto trio – Steven Soto, 28, and his parents, Pedro Soto, 48, and Carmen Soto, 47, of Lynn – operated Paradise Real Estate in Lynn and engaged in a scheme to defraud financial institutions by acquiring mortgage loans under false pretenses.

The scheme involved lying about the qualifications and identities of the borrowers taking out the loans, as well as recruiting straw purchasers and submitting false loan applications. By doing so, the Sotos concealed their own roles in the mortgage scams.

Steven Soto was sentenced to 65 months in prison and four years of supervised release, while Pedro Soto was sentenced to 48 months in prison and three years of supervised release. Both men were ordered to pay $1,055,474 in restitution.

Carmen Soto, the matriarch of the family, received a one-year prison sentence, three years of supervised release, six months of home confinement, and $792,559 in restitution.

The Sotos were convicted of multiple counts of mail fraud, and Steven and Pedro Soto were also convicted of aggravated identity theft on June 21, 2013.

The case was investigated in cooperation with the Massachusetts State Police and the Lynn Police Department, and was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys John A. Capin and Brian Perez-Daple. U.S. Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz and Steven Ricciardi, Special Agent in Charge of the United States Secret Service, made the announcement today.

The court found the loss associated with the scheme to be over $1 million, with the Sotos defrauding financial institutions through their mortgage scams.

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