Prison time is ahead for a defendant in a smaller residential lending fraud case and an exponentially larger case involving distressed commercial real estate loans.
Tony Huy Havens has been sentenced for arranging the fraudulent purchase of a single-family residence in Modesto, California, using relatives as straw buyers.
But the simple case of mortgage fraud pales in comparison to a second crime Havens previously admitted to
involving $1.1 billion in commercial mortgages.
An announcement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of California indicated that U.S. District Judge Lawrence J. O’Neill Monday handed down Havens a sentence of three years and five months in prison for both crimes.
In the larger scheme, Havens admired in September 2015 that he collected advance fees totaling $248,750 from 15 victims in eight states in danger of foreclosure on large construction projects.
Havens allegedly provided bogus documents showing that third-party lenders had been lined up.
Victims were deceived into wiring money to
bank accounts he controlled.
“No loans were ever made,” the Justice Department said.
In the residential fraud case, Havens obtained a loan that exceeded the selling price and used the difference for a down payment.
Havens, who checks into prison on April 4, was indicted in July 2011 for promoting “The Gift Program,” which had buyers and sellers illegally setting a sales price of approximately $100,000 to $150,000 above the negotiated fair market value price in order to avoid borrower down payments.
Lenders lost $3.256 million as a result of the scheme, the announcement at the time said.
It’s not clear if there is a relationship between “The Gift Program” and the single-family fraud Havens was sentenced for.
