Mortgage Broker Charged in Indiana Scheme
A federal grand jury has indicted a mortgage broker on wire fraud charges in connection with home loan applications he filed on behalf of a father and son for their purchases of 55 homes.
The indictment returned Thursday charges that Justin L. Stuckey, the owner of Maximum Mortgage in Fort Wayne, obtained fraudulent loans in 2002 for investors buying rental properties.
Stuckey also faces a civil lawsuit over allegations that he was involved in some $5.5 million in Indiana mortgage funds that resulted in nearly 150 home foreclosures.
Attempts to reach Stuckey on Thursday for comment in the mortgage matter were unsuccessful, The Journal Gazette reported. Stuckey, however, told the newspaper in March that he had done nothing wrong.
“If I did anything illegal, it’s been almost five years since those loans were made. I would have been charged by now,” Stuckey said.
“I could write those home loans again today. … I just want this stuff to end so I can get back to doing my business. It’s what I’m good at.”
The indictment charges that the applications submitted by Stuckey falsely claimed his clients had owned the properties in question for at least a year, had at least 20 percent equity in the properties and wanted the loans for mortgage refinancing.
Transmitting false information across state lines to obtain a mortgage is a federal crime. The bank involved - ABN Amro - is based in Ann Arbor, Mich., and the money transmitted to the title company closing the home loans went through a bank in Florida.
Attorneys for the property owner, the appraiser and the title insurance company have all said their clients have done nothing wrong.
Amro’s mortgage fraud expert testified the bank’s computer records showed after Stuckey entered the information for a home loan application that was denied, he went back in four more times and changed numbers until it was approved.
Among the changes, Miller testified, was raising the appraised value of the house 25 percent and increasing the borrower’s assets.
SOURCE: Lafayette-West Lafayette Journal & Courier Online