FBI Agent details Ahmad’s scheme

Jul 25, 2011 News

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US mortgage fraud investigation…
US Federal Special Agent Bryan Trebelhorn has revealed in court documents how Guyanese businessman Ed Ahmad fleeced a US lending agency “Countrywide Home Loans” of more than US$700000 on two New York properties.
The Special Agent, who has been working on the FBI’s Financial Institutions Fraud Squad, has testified in an affidavit that he has been working on matters relating to the Guyanese businessman since 2007.
Ahmad was pulled from a Delta Airlines flight bound for Guyana on Saturday by Federal Agents as authorities investigate him for knowingly and intentionally conspiring to execute a scheme and articulate to defraud a financial institution, Countrywide Home Loans, to obtain moneys, funds, credits, assets, securities and other properties by means of materially false and fraudulent pretenses, representations and promises.
The Guyanese businessman, who has other business interests in the Queens, New York District, has since posted a US$2.5M bail.
In the affidavit, Trebelhorn outlined an overview of the mortgage fraud scheme that was allegedly perpetuated by Ahmad in collaboration with others.
He stated that since 2000, a group of co-conspirators has defrauded various lending institutions by obtaining mortgages on properties located in the eastern district of New York and elsewhere through fraudulent means, including by falsifying mortgage loan applications appraisals, title reports and other documents.
The false information made the borrowers appear more credit worthy, and falsely enhanced the purported value of the properties. As a result, the lenders were falsely induced to issue mortgage loans secured by the properties.
According to Trebelhorn, in some instances the co-conspirators executed the scheme by using individuals (straw buyers) to conceal the true ownership of the properties.
“In particular, the co-conspirator recruited straw buyers to pose as the purchasers of some of the properties,” Trebelhorn explained.
The straw buyers generally were individuals with good credit scores but with incomes and assets that were normally insufficient to secure a mortgage loan.
At the direction of the co-conspirators, the straw buyers agreed to apply for mortgages on properties. In reality the co-conspirators were the real owners of the properties purportedly purchased by the straw buyers.
In exchange for the use of their names and good credit, the straw buyers often received a fee.
Once recruited, the co-conspirators prepare mortgage applications for properties. These applications contain numerous misrepresentation and material falsehood designed to make the straw buyer appear more credit worthy.
Among other things, the mortgage applications falsely inflated the bank account balances and income of the straw buyers.
Following the disbursement of loans, the co-conspirators do not make mortgage payments to the lenders for the properties, and the mortgage loans defaulted.
The FBI Agent said that on numerous occasions, Ahmad as the owner of a mortgage brokerage business, conspired to obtain mortgage loans from lenders through fraudulent means.
He stated that during 2006 and 2007, Ahmad participated in the preparation of approximately 163 mortgage loan applications to a lending agency, Countrywide Home Loans, for which Countrywide has suffered losses.
He cited two cases for which there is clear evidence of fraud.
“For example the investigation has revealed that on or about and between January 1, 2007 and July 31, 2007, the defendant Edul Ahmad conspired with others to fraudulently obtain mortgage loans from Countrywide through the use of straw buyers for a property located in South Ozone Park, New York and a property located in Jamaica, New York,” the FBI agent stated in his affidavit.
He explained that using fake credit, Ahmad obtained bank financing for both properties.
According to Trebelhorn, with regards to the South Ozone property, the amount of the mortgage loan was $417,000 and the mortgage information contained numerous misstatements as to the credit worthiness of the straw buyer.
For example, the mortgage application stated that the straw buyer earned $9,850 as an Executive Chef at a catering business owned by Ahmad himself.
The application also lists a variation of Ahmad’s name, A Edul, as the straw buyer’s landlord.
Trebelhorn said that during his investigations, he had spoken with cooperating witnesses (CW) who worked with Ahmad in the real estate business, and who claimed that he/she knew Ahmad and the straw buyer very well.
According to the cooperating witness, the straw buyer in this instance was married to Ahmad and never intended to live at the South Ozone property.
Moreover, the straw buyer never worked as a chef at Ahmad’s catering company, according to the cooperating witness.
“Additionally the CW informed the government that on numerous occasions, the straw buyer purchased properties on behalf of Ahmad,” the FBI Agent stated.
It was further revealed that Ahmad was the principal author of the application for the loan.

With regards to the Jamaica, New York property, Ahmad obtained a loan of $292,500, also from Countrywide, using another straw buyer.
Again the application included numerous false representations, including the fact that the buyer worked as a Catering Manager at Ahmad’s catering business and earned $6,650 per month.
“The mortgage application includes a certification of employment for the straw buyer attesting that the Ahmad’s mortgage agency had consulted with a manager at the catering business and verified that the buyer had been employed there since 2002,” Trebelhorn’s affidavit stated.
But the investigation revealed that the buyer never worked at the catering business but was employed as a real estate agent at Ahmad’s real estate business.
Special Agent Treblehorn said that as an operative in the Fraud Squad, he has conducted physical surveillance, interviewed witnesses, reviewed extensive documents obtained through the service of subpoenas, and used other investigative techniques to secure relevant information for use in criminal prosecution.
He said that the knowledge of his information in the affidavit is based upon his personal participation in the investigation against Ahmad sand in numerous other investigations of fraud perpetrated against financial institutions, including bank and wire fraud.
The FBI Agent added that his review of records and reports, his debriefing of cooperating witnesses and victims and conversations with other law enforcement agents involved in this and other investigations, conversations with and review of information provided by financial institutions and his law enforcement and training, also helped in the preparation of the affidavit.
Ahmad raised eyebrows when he made a questionable $40,000 “loan” to Representative Greg Meeks. Ahmad is a key figure in ongoing probes of the “loan” Meeks forgot to repay for three and a half years until the New York Daily News exposed it.
In January 2007, Ahmad gave Meeks $40,000 to finish paying off the congressman’s new $830,000 home.  There was no discussion of interest rates, collateral, due dates and no documents were generated at the time, sources familiar with the transaction have told The News.
Meeks did not list the transaction on 2007 or 2008 financial disclosure forms he filed with the House, revealing it for the first time in a 2009 form that was filed in mid-2010.
In July 2010, shortly after The News revealed details of this transaction and the FBI paid Ahmad a visit, Meeks suddenly paid back the money and called it a loan.
Meeks is the subject of an ongoing FBI investigation, as well as a probe by the Office of Congressional Ethics.
He faced lawsuits in July last year alleging predatory lending and real-estate fraud and faced foreclosure action on a Jamaica home in 2009.
Ahmad recently opened a place called Building Materials and Appliances Depot located at Industrial Site, Ruimveldt, just in front of the publishing house of the ruling party’s newspaper, the Mirror.

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