Bennett woman sentenced for mortgage fraud

A Bennett woman has been sentenced to above 3 years in jail for mortgage crime, springing from her work as an independent contractor for Highland Mortgage of Evergreen. U.S. District Judge Marcia Krieger sentenced Linda Carnagie, 61, to 41 months in jail for conspiracy to scam the US, conspiracy to commit money laundering, wire crime and fake statements.

In addition, Carnagie was ordered to pay restitution totaling $206,693, forfeit another $41,205, which was proceeds of her illegal activities, and pay a $41,205 special assessment to victims of a crime fund.

According to investigators, from Feb 1999 thru July 2004, Carnagie falsified info in loan applications and backup documents submitted to mortgage corporations and both the Fed. Housing Administration and the U.S. Dept of Housing and Urban Development. Carnagie did this, authorities claimed, for the point of getting loans and FHA / HUD mortgage insurance. According to indictments returned against Carnagie, she and others working with her would unlawfully aid buyers who could not legitimately qualify for an FHA-insured mortgage by faking the borrowers’ Social Security numbers, corroborations of work and prepare fake earnings information. Carnagie and her co-conspirators would then take the fake info and submit it to the mortgage firms who then sent it to the FHA and HUD. All of this was done, according to the indictments, to make it appear the borrowers were financially qualified to try their mortgage qualifications. “The sentencing of Linda Carnagie should send a robust message to any one connected with fraudulently originating FHA insured loans the U.S. Dep. of Housing and Urban Development, Office of Inspector General, will not tolerate such activity and will aggressively analyze loan fraud,” expounded Kenneth Donohue, HUD’s inspector general.