(Source: USAO, VBA) ALEXANDRIA, Va. – Five California men have been sentenced for their roles in a nationwide home loan modification scam that victimized over 400 homeowners and families, resulting in a total loss of over $3.8 million. Roscoe Umali, 38, of Santa Ana, California, was sentenced on August 18 to 220 months in prison for leading the multi-state conspiracy.  Umali was also ordered to forfeit $3.8 million and to make…

(USAO, District of Maine) Portland, Maine: United States Attorney Thomas E. Delahanty II announced thatTimothy P. Gallagher, 47, of Jay, Maine, was sentenced today in U.S. District Court by Judge Jon D. Levy to a year and a day in prison and three years of supervised release for federal program fraud. He was also ordered to pay $79,639 in restitution. He pled guilty on April 14, 2016. According to court records, between May and November 2014…

(Source: Portland Press Herald) Timothy P. Gallagher, 47, of Jay was sentenced to prison Tuesday on a federal fraud charge by Judge Jon D. Levy in U.S. District Court in Portland. Gallagher pleaded guilty in April to defrauding a company that received funding from programs administered by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. He was sentenced to one year and a day in prison and three years…

(Source: theadvertiser.com) Resources available from FEMA are not sufficient to ‘make you whole' again, Gov. John Bel Edwards said Thursday after speaking with Youngsville residents whose homes recently flooded. Edwards, Youngsville Mayor Ken Ritter and other local and state officials toured two Lafayette Parish neighborhoods hit hard by the devastating rain that flooded hundreds of homes starting Aug. 12. Nearly 12 inches of rain fell in three…

(Source: theadvocate.com) Louisiana’s congressional delegation is working on legislation for additional funding to supplement recovery efforts from the historic flooding. U.S. Sen. David Vitter said Thursday he and the other members of the delegation are gathering the facts and figures – number of homes and businesses lost, for instance – that would support a request for billions of extra dollars beyond the federal disaster assistance available…

(Source: USAO, TN) Wendy Askins, 55, of Red Boiling Springs, Tenn., pleaded guilty today before U.S. District Judge Aleta A. Trauger, to two counts of theft from a federally-funded entity, announced David Rivera, U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee. At the time of the offenses, Askins was the Executive Director for the Upper Cumberland Development District (UCDD), and also oversaw the daily operations of the Cumberland Regional…

(Source: News Channel 5) COOKEVILLE, Tenn. - A former deputy director at the Upper Cumberland Development District in Cookeville pleaded guilty Monday afternoon to a single count of federal bank fraud. As part of a plea deal with prosecutors, Larry Webb agreed to testify against longtime UCDD executive director Wendy Askins. Webb, who had faced a potential 220 years in federal prison and $6.75 million in fines, avoided any prison sentence under…

(OAJ, NJ) TRENTON –Attorney General Christopher S. Porrino announced that nine additional individuals have been charged criminally with filing fraudulent applications for federal relief funds related to Superstorm Sandy.  Since March 2014, the Attorney General’s Office has filed criminal charges against 71 people for allegedly engaging in this type of fraud, including the nine individuals charged today. The Attorney General’s Office is…

BOSTON – The president and founder of a former Falmouth mortgage company has been charged with defrauding the Government National Mortgage Association out of nearly $3 million. Robert Pena, 67, was charged Thursday in U.S. District Court in Boston. Pena, the president and founder of the now-defunct mortgage company, Mortgage Security, Inc. (MSI), was indicted on conspiracy and wire fraud charges. He was arrested today and will appear in before…

(Source: USAO, MA) BOSTON – The president and founder of a Falmouth mortgage company was charged in U.S. District Court in Boston in connection with defrauding the Government National Mortgage Association (Ginnie Mae) out of nearly $3 million. Robert Pena, 67, the president and founder of the now-defunct mortgage company, Mortgage Security, Inc. (MSI), was indicted on conspiracy and wire fraud charges.  Pena was arrested today and will…

(Source: USAO, Western District of Missouri) JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – Tammy Dickinson, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that the former vice president of a Pulaski County, Mo., bank was sentenced in federal court today for leading a $4.1 million conspiracy to defraud the Small Business Administration, as well as participating in a separate and unrelated $18.2 million scheme to defraud the federal government…

(USAO, CT) ARIA MALEKI, 33, of Santa Ana, Calif., was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Stefan R. Underhill in Bridgeport to 112 months of imprisonment, followed by three years of supervised release, for heading a mortgage loan modification scheme that defrauded more than 1,000 struggling homeowners across the United States. “This defendant presided over a scheme that preyed on struggling homeowners in Connecticut and across the United…

A former Montgomery attorney pleaded guilty on Thursday to charges related to defrauding the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development. Christopher B. Pitts, 46, now of Atlanta, pleaded guilty to wire fraud affecting a financial institution, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Alabama. Pitts served as a closing attorney for the sales of all homes owned by HUD in northern and central Alabama between…

(USAO, OH) A former Youngstown man was sentenced to more than three years in prison for crimes related to the purchase of a dozen homes in Mahoning County, said Carole S. Rendon, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio, and Steven D. Anthony, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Cleveland office. R. Allen Sinclair, 52, of Suwanee, Georgia, was sentenced to 41 months in prison and ordered to pay approximately $830,000 in…

(USAO, NY) Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced today that ANTHONY BOVE, the former Commissioner of the Board of Water Supply of the City of Mount Vernon (the “Water Department”), was sentenced today to 15 months in prison for soliciting a $10,000 bribe from an employee of the Water Department, and lying to federal law enforcement officers when BOVE was interviewed during the investigation.…

NEWARK, N.J. – A West Orange, New Jersey, man who was the sole proprietor of two companies that purportedly provided printing and digital marketing services to the Newark Watershed Conservation and Development Corporation (NWCDC) today admitted his role in a conspiracy to fraudulently bill the NWCDC for more than $110,000 for work that was never performed, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced. Kevin Gleaton, 52, pleaded guilty before U.S.…

A New York parole board freed Kwame Abdul-Haqq in 2004 after he served time for attempted murder, robbery, burglary and kidnapping. Just three years later, Abdul-Haqq was hired by the state of Indiana — as a prison guard. The 52-year-old Anderson man was charged Wednesday in a federal indictment with defrauding the state of Indiana out of the $175,000 he was paid when he worked as an officer at the Pendleton Correctional Facility, a maximum…

Indianapolis – United States Attorney Josh J. Minkler announced today the indictment of an Anderson man on six counts of wire fraud, two counts of making false statements on a loan or credit application, and one count of making false declarations before the court. Kwame Abdul-Haqq, 52, Anderson, was indicted by a federal grand jury in Indianapolis. Robert Borum has a lengthy criminal history in New York, including convictions for attempted…

(Source: USAO, MD) Baltimore, Maryland – Real estate agent Christopher A. Kwegan, age 59, of Randallstown, Maryland pleaded guilty today to charges arising from the fraudulent purchase of a Baltimore City property using fraudulent loan documentation and a straw purchaser. The guilty plea was announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein; Special Agent in Charge Kevin Perkins of the Federal Bureau of…

(Source: phillyvoice.com) Two Chester men pleaded guilty on Wednesday to a multi-year conspiracy that involved filing false deeds on Delaware County homes and false tax forms against judges, law enforcement and other government employees in an effort to intimidate them, the U.S. Attorney's Office announced. Steven Hameed, 57, and Darnell Young, 48, both of Chester, pleaded guilty to all charges spelled out in an indictment detailing their…