Three of four people indicted in a Florida mortgage fraud scheme involving reverse mortgages have been found guilty in federal court.
The three convicted defendants, Louis Gendason, Kimberly Mackey and John Incandela, now face prison terms up to 30 years for their roles in the $2.5 million fraud scheme. They will be sentenced on November 8th.
According to court documents, Gendason and Incandela were loan officers at 1st Continental Mortgage in Fort Lauderdale and Boca Raton, Florida. They solicited homeowners over 62 to refinance their mortgages using a revere mortgage. They fraudulently altered appraisals to increase values to entice Genworth Financial Home Equity to fund loans and the FHA to insure them. With the help of Mackey, a closing and title agent with REO Land Services Inc., the funds received were not used to pay off existing mortgages of the borrowers, but were funneled to accounts controlled by the Gendason and Incandela. Mackey falsified HUD-1 settlement statements to show disbursements were made to pay off the loans. In the final step of the fraud, the defendants than participated in a loan modification scheme to hide reverse mortgage transactions from the original lenders.
The final defendant in the case, Marcos Echeverria is scheduled to appear in court on August 10th.
