Missouri Mortgage Scheme Leads to Indictments

A Missouri couple was indicted on multiple charges involving a mortgage scheme, the St. Louis Business Journal reports.

According to the indictment, Anna Bonds, also know as Anna Tillman, and her husband, Mark, allegedly devised a scheme to defraud Missouri mortgage lenders of funds by inducing them to fund mortgages based on false and fraudulent information.

Anna Bonds was a mortgage broker and was employed by A Mortgage Solutions and C.D. Adams. She was paid a commission only if she was able to obtain a mortgage for a client, according to Hanaway’s release.

She allegedly would obtain false financial and employment documents that would inflate a borrower’s income and thus make them able to obtain a mortgage that otherwise wouldn’t have been approved.

Anna Bonds also brokered home loans for property that she and Mark Bonds were personally selling or buying. She allegedly would use false financial and employment information to obtain personal mortgages as well as for mortgages of the purchasers of her real estate.

The indictment charges that she would conceal her role in these mortgage fraud transactions by preparing the false mortgage applications but having another mortgage broker sign them.

The indictment also alleges that Mark and Anna Bonds built a new residence at 5196 Delcastle Drive, in north St. Louis County, by obtaining a $364,507 home mortgage loan using these same fraudulent pretenses.

Anna Bonds, 38, was indicted by a federal grand jury on nine counts of mortgage fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud; Mark Bonds, 44, was indicted on four counts of mortgage fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud. Both defendants reside at the Delcastle Drive residence. They were arrested by FBI agents Friday.

If convicted, each mortgage fraud charge carries a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison and/or fines up to $1 million; the conspiracy charge carries a maximum of five years and/or fines up to $250,000.