Florida indicts nine for Mortgage Fraud

United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida in a press release announced the indictment of nine individuals. Antonio Abrau, 63, of Hialeah; Paul Ramos, 52, of Miami; Elba Emilia Perez, 43, of Lehigh Acres; Mike Ohana, 39, of Miami; Fernando Soto, 37, of Miami; Erick Valdes, 35, of Miami; Yosvany Abreu Garcia, 34, of Fort Myers; Ryan T. Dosen, 30, of Philadelphia; and Michael Ramos, 29 of Miami have all been indicted for the allegedly defrauding two banks in the amount of three million dollars by use of fraudulent mortgage loan applications. 

Michael Ramos, a licensed mortgage broker and owner of Go Expert Mortgage submitted fraudulent loan applications to lenders in regard to properties at 5009 NE London Walk Terrace in Miami and 5320 La Gorce Drive in Miami Beach. Paula Ramos, Michael’s mother and employee for his brokerage company played a part in the scheme to defraud the mortgage lenders. They submitted loan applications to Washington Mutual with that misrepresented the borrowers’ employment, income, assets, liabilities and intent to occupy. They used straw-buyers to conduct their scheme.

Attorney Dosen acted as the title attorney in at less one of the deals submitted by the Ramos. He is no longer licensed to practice in the state of Florida.

Soto and Abreu were the straw-buyers in different transactions involved in the scheme. Garcia is charged with recruiting Abreu as a straw-buyer for the co-conspirators and also happens to be the daughter of Abreu.

Perez for her part played the part of Soto’s fiancée to apply for a home equity line of credit involving one the properties. Regions Bank funded two hundred thousand dollars for the home equity line of credit which eventually resulted in a complete loss to the bank.

Garcia and Valdes are charged with recruiting some of the defendants into the scheme in addition to receiving payments from the proceeds obtained by fraudulent means. Valdes is the licensed appraiser in the group of co-conspirators.

The United States Attorney General for the Southern District of Florida affirms that all an indictment is merely an accusation of a possible crime and that the defendants are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.