Jets Number One Fan Indicted for Fraud
David Findel, 44, President of Worldwide Financial Resources in Morganville, New Jersey and the Jets number one fan has been indicted for mortgage fraud.
Findel had his life rearranged September 8th when his scheme to defraud mortgage lenders was revealed in front of a Newark federal Judge. According to prosecutors Findal’s family business had been in a downward spiral since January 2008.
Findel is widely known for his purchase of fifty yard line tickets for the New York Jets last October where he placed the winning bid of four hundred thousand dollars. Prosecutors say that Findel was drowning in debt at the time he made the bid for the Meadowlands Stadium seats which left countless affluent Jets fans in disbelief. The New York, Jets at the time, made Worldwide Financial Resources their go to lender after the purchase when it made its move to Florham Park. The team released a statement on September 8th confirming that they had broken off all business associations with Findel and Worldwide Financial Resources. They future decline to confirm if Findel had paid for his four hundred thousand dollar seats on the fifty yard line and affirmed that if a ticket season holder defaults the seats automatically go back to the team.
Worldwide Financial Resources was founded in 1988 by Findels family and began operations as a Financial Planning Business. The business moved into the mortgage arena some time in 1993 and had employed over one hundred employees. The company helped individuals secure mortgage loans from other lenders in addition to financing some of the loans itself. Worldwide Financial Resource on the whole financed the loans itself and then sold them off to mortgage lenders later. The company was financing approximately ninety million dollars in mortgage loans every month in this manner. The company was doing well up until approximately January of 2008. The mortgage market was beginning to crumble and Worldwide Financial Resource was no exception to the mortgage crisis meltdown.
Findels lifestyle was that of a very lucrative businessman. He took extravagant vacations and owned luxurious cars. He owns a home on a four acre lot close to the Colts neck Golf Club which he purchased in 2002 as business began to boom. The home has since been assessed as one of the top five most expensive homes in the community.
Prosecutors say that Findel realized that his company was failing and in order to maintain the company and its employees he devised a scheme to defraud the mortgage lenders the company was re-selling their loans to.
The scheme involved selling the same loan to two different lenders in order to receive proceeds from both. One example involves a loan for four hundred and thirteen thousand dollars. Worldwide Financial Resources financed the loan and re-sold it to a lender fifteen days later. Findel sometime after that forged some of the documents and re-sold the loan again to another financial institution. He represented to that institution that the loan was free and clear. Findel in the month of July conducted this illegal practice on over twenty seven mortgage loans. Investigators in the cases are yet to discover the full scale figures of the fraud. The losses are still being calculated as more information becomes available to them.
Findel has been charged with eleven million dollars in wire fraud. Robert A. Weir, Findels attorney stated prior to the hearing that Findel has been cooperating with the court and the federal government. Findel surrendered to the Federal Bureau of Investigation on his own accord. In the courtroom he stood calmly during his brief hearing before the United States District Judge Mark Falk. Falk allowed Findel to be released on one million dollars bail. The bond has been secured by Findels four million dollar home in Colts Neck.
United States Attorney Kevin O’Dowd stated that if Mr. Findel is convicted he could receive a sentence of up to twenty years in federal prison for wire fraud.
Assistant United States Attorney Paul B. Matey will be prosecuting the cases.
O’Dowd reaffirms that indictments are merely allegations that a crime has occurred and that the defendant is innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
