Las Vegas Homebuilder Charged with Mortgage Fraud
Last month a Las Vegas home builder faced indictment in federal court for allegedly selling his houses at inflated prices in order to get kickbacks. He's being charged with conspiracy, bank fraud and wire fraud. The defendant is being prosecuted as part of the national initiative Operation Stolen Dream to help curb mortgage fraud.
Mortgage fraud is both a federal and state crime. The Nevada crime of mortgage fraud occurs when a person with intent to defraud knowingly makes a false statement or misrepresentation concerning a material fact or deliberately conceals or fails to disclose a material fact. Because it's an intent crime, a person may not be convicted of it if they didn't deliberately defraud.
Similar to federal law, the Nevada crime of mortgage fraud carries very stiff penalties. The typical sentence for committing the Nevada crime of mortgage fraud, a category C felony, is one to ten years in prison and/or up to $10,000 in fines. However, it's punished as a category B felony if the defendant was found to have engaged in a pattern of mortgage fraud lending, and the punishment is upped to three to twenty years in prison and/or up to $50,000 in fines.
For more on this story, go to: http://www.lvrj.com/news/las-vegas-home-builder-indicted-in-mortgage-fraud-case-99512319.html
