(CNS) Posted Friday August 27, 2010 - 8:39am
Prosecutors are expected to ask a judge this morning to sentence a former Beverly Hills mortgage broker to seven years behind bars for orchestrating a massive fraud scheme that caused tens of millions of dollars in losses to federally insured banks.
Mark Allen Abrams, 49, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in downtown Los Angeles to conspiracy, bank fraud and numerous counts of loan fraud in connection with the scheme in which inflated mortgage loans were obtained for homes in Beverly Hills, Bel Air, Holmby Hills, Malibu, Carmel, Mill Valley, Pebble Beach and La Jolla.
According to prosecutors, Abrams and co-conspirators sent false documentation, including bogus purchase contracts and appraisals, to banks to deceive them into unwittingly funding mortgage loans that were hundreds of thousands of dollars more than the homes actually cost.
Lehman Brothers Bank, for example, was deceived into funding more than 80 such inflated loans from 2000 to 2003, resulting in tens of millions of dollars in losses, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
Eight other real estate professionals have previously pleaded guilty to federal felony charges in connection with the scheme and are serving sentences ranging from probation to 14 years in prison.
They have also been ordered to pay part of the $46 million restitution.
Defense attorneys are expected to ask U.S. District Judge Dean D. Pregerson to sentence Abrams to less than five years in prison at today's hearing, according to court papers.
