VA man receives 57 months for Mortgage Fraud

United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, Neil H. MacBride along with Assistant Director in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation Washington Field Office, Joseph Persichini Jr. announced in a press release the sentencing of Godwin Asifo, of Woodbridge, Virginia by United States District Judge Claude M. Hilton.

Godwin Asifo, age 55 was convicted on August 6, 2009 on two counts of mail fraud and one count of wire fraud. Trial documents revealed that Mr. Asifo between May of 2005 and June of 2006 recruited straw buyers to purchase three homes. The straw buyers were told that the homes would be sold for a profit in six months. Mr. Asifo in order to ensure the straw buyers were approved for the mortgage loans fraudulently completed mortgage loan applications. The mortgage applications were submitted with inflated income, asset and fraudulent employment information. Mr. Asifo also provided the straw buyers with thousands of dollars to deposit into their bank accounts to artificially inflate those accounts to ensure the approval of the mortgage application.

The three properties involved were located in Woodbridge, Haymarket and Ashburn, Virginia. The loans at the time of purchased ranged between three hundred thirty five thousand dollars and seven hundred sixty five thousand dollars. The properties were not sold for profit and the straw buyers allowed the loans to go into foreclosure. The lenders were left with the losses.

Mr. Asifo received his sentence on November 20th for his involvement and received fifty seven months with three years of supervised release for the mortgage fraud scheme. United States District Judge Claude M. Hilton also ordered Mr. Asifo to pay restitution of five hundred forty six thousand six hundred eighty five dollars and twenty cents.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Jack Hanley and was investigated by the Washington Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.