Luxury Home Builders in OH indicted on Mortgage Scam

A federal grand jury indicted two Luxury Home Builders, along with a former banker and interior designer on January 27th on charges of conspiracy, loan fraud and wire fraud.

Luxury Home Builder Bernie Kurlemann, Mason Builder, Bryan Sanneman, former Huntington National Bank Vice President, Terrance J. Monahan, Jr. and Interior Designer Eric Duke all pleaded not guilty in relation to counts of loan and wire fraud against them.  The group was released on their own recognizance after their arrangement on January 29th.

Straw buyers in the case have been charged separately in the case; they are Francisca Webster and Christopher Gagnon. They are accused of purchasing homes in the Long Cove subdivision of Deerfield Township, Ohio and one home in River’s Bend in South Lebanon, Ohio.

Ms. Webster who is from Cincinnati attempted to sued Eric Duke in a Hamilton County Common Plea Court in 2006. In that suit she claimed that Mr. Duke, her friend and tax advisor and hoax her into purchasing two properties in Deerfield Township and Lebanon. Ms. Webster’s in her suit claimed that Mr. Duke told her that he could get her out of debt if she allowed him to used her good credit rating to purchase two properties. The properties had been on the Homearama show in Long Cove. She agreed to allow Mr. Duke to use her good credit rating and signed the loan applications. The applications fraudulently stated her income and well supporting documentation from Huntington National Bank that claimed she had over two million dollars in investments. Ms. Webster made the mortgage payments on the properties until 2008 according to her attorney Ron Perry. Mr. Perry stated that Mr. Duke sold one of the properties which he was not authorized to sell.

The court eventually dismissed the case.

Mr. Gagnon purchased a mansion on the Emerald Isle. The mortgage application he signed off on stated that he earned over sixty-one thousand dollars a month and that a down payment of two hundred eighty thousand dollars was made. The down payment was never actually made to Mr. Kurlemann.

According to United States Attorney Carter Stewart, in one of the transaction involving Mr. Kurlemann it is alleged that Mr. Kurlemann gave the down payment funds to Mr. Duke to give to the straw buyer. The straw buyer once the purchase was completed returned the monies to Mr. Kurlemann.

Mr. Kurlemann in a press release stated that “if these buyers of these homes lied to their lenders to get mortgages; I did not know that they lied”.

The case was investigated for two years by Bruce McGary, Chief Assistant Prosecutor for Warren County at the time, The Federal Bureau of Investigation, and state and local law enforcement agencies.

Bruce McGary is a now Special Assistant United States Attorney according to Warren County Prosecutor, Rachel Hutzel. Ms. Hutzel went on to state that her office has been hit within the last year with numerous mortgage fraud cases and they present an enormous impact on the community.


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