By Ivan Pereira
Owners of a South Richmond Hill lending group were convicted last Thursday in Manhattan federal court for their role in a multimillion-dollar mortgage fraud scheme, the U.S. attorney said for the Southern District said.
George Esso, 38, of St. Albans, and Ravi Persaud, 44, of Long Island, who worked for GuyAmerican Funding Corp. on Liberty Avenue, face multiple decades in prison for their crimes, including bank and wire fraud, U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said.
The men defrauded banks out of more than $23 million by tricking them into lending mortgages to unqualified borrowers, he said.
“The real-estate professionals found guilty yesterday sacrificed their licenses to their greed and sought to profit at the expense of the banks that relied upon them,” Bharara said in a statement released Friday.
Esso, who acted as a loan officer and received thousands of dollars in commissions, and Persaud, who acted as a closing attorney, must also pay restitution to their victims, according to Bharara.
The loan officer submitted applications on behalf of the borrowers and filed false statements concerning income, employment and residence, the U.S. attorney said. Several co-conspirators worked with Esso and other loan officers, who pleaded guilty, to recruit buyers and get straw buyers to partake in the scheme, according to Bharara.
Persaud acted as a closing attorney on these transactions and acted at the behest of the co-conspirators by receiving the loan proceeds into his account and eventually making payments to his accomplices, Bharara said.
He wrote checks to the co-conspirators so he could set six months worth of mortgage payments from the closing proceeds, which would throw off the lenders, according to the U.S. attorney. Persaud also gave the banks false documents regarding how the proceeds were being distributed, the prosecutor said.
The entire investigation was part of the U.S. attorney’s ongoing “Operation Bad Deeds,” which is targeting mortgage fraud in the city.
“This verdict sends the clear message that we will continue to work tirelessly, together with outlaw enforcement partners, to prosecute mortgage fraud and to hold professionals accountable when they cease to be gatekeepers and decide to join the fraud themselves,” Bharara said.
Reach reporter Ivan Pereira by e-mail at ipereira@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4546.
