Queens-based Guyanese lawyer, sister charged in US$3.3M mortgage fraud

Apr 09, 2013 News

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Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown, joined by New York State Department of Financial Services, Superintendent Benjamin M. Lawsky, on Friday announced that three individuals, including a Richmond Hill attorney and his sister, have been charged with conspiring to commit mortgage fraud and larceny from Wells Fargo Bank.
They are accused of fraudulently obtaining mortgage funds in excess of $3.3 million pertaining to the purchase of six properties – including four in Queens –during a six-month period in 2008.

District Attorney Brown said, “This complicated and devious scheme allegedly involved defendants who were so greedy that they pushed through more than $3.3M in fraudulent mortgage loan transactions in just over six months by falsely inflating the income and assets of the borrowers.
Their alleged actions resulted in all six properties going into default and forcing the bank to initiate foreclosure proceedings against the borrowers. Some of the properties were sold in short sales for up to one-third less than the sale prices that were paid to acquire the properties in the transactions involved in this case.”
Superintendent Lawsky said, “As alleged, the defendants not only stole money out of these mortgages, but even worse they left their victims out in the cold and facing foreclosure. We will continue to vigorously pursue mortgage fraud so that perpetrators are punished and homeowners are better protected.”
District Attorney Brown identified the three defendants as Guyana-born, Attorney Michael Gangadeen, 47, of 332 North Village Avenue in Rockville Center, New York; his sister Savitri (a.k.a. Savi) Gangadeen, 49, of 48 Willis Avenue in Floral Park, New York; and former Wells Fargo loan officer/mortgage consultant Paul Constante, 38, of 41 Ellison Avenue in Westbury, New York.
The defendants have each been charged with first-degree grand larceny, first-degree criminal possession of stolen property, first-degree falsifying business records, fourth-degree criminal facilitation, first degree scheme to defraud and fourth-degree conspiracy. If convicted, they each face up to 25 years in prison.
The defendants Constante and Savitri Gangadeen are awaiting arraignment in Queens Criminal Court, and an arrest warrant has been issued for defendant Michael Gangadeen.
District Attorney Brown said that, according to the charges, the defendant Constante, who at the time was a loan officer/mortgage consultant for Wells Fargo Home Loans, prepared and submitted the loan applications of the applicants purchasing the six properties – and which contained information, such as the borrowers’ employment, income, assets and liabilities – and stated that he had obtained the information from interviewing the applicants.
Wells Fargo business records allegedly included supporting loan documentation that consisted of the applicants’ pay stubs and bank statements. It is alleged that in reviewing the supporting loan documentation several of the bank statements submitted for the different borrowers, contained the same transaction details for deposits and withdrawals but had been changed to reflect the respective borrower’s name, a different account number and a different opening and ending
balance.
It is additionally alleged that the same account numbers were used for different borrowers in at least two instances and that there were instances where a borrower’s name was reflected on one page of a bank statement but a different name was reflected on a second page of the same bank statement.
It is further alleged that at least four of the borrowers stated that they had never provided the defendant Constante with the information contained on the loan applications about their employment, income and assets and, in fact, had never communicated or had any dealings with him and that the information on the applications was false and inflated and that they were unaware that the bogus information was submitted in order for their loans to be approved.
The four borrowers allegedly stated that the person they met about their loan and to whom they provided information regarding their actual employment status, income, pay stubs and bank statements was defendant Savitri Gangadeen, an employee of MTS Funding, a mortgage brokerage company located at 85-52 114th Street in Richmond Hill, Queens.
MTS Funding was owned and operated by defendant Michael Gangadeen, who also maintained a law office at the same location between January 1, 2008, and June 26, 2008, and it was there that the closings for all six properties took place and in which Michael Gangadeen acted as the settlement attorney for the bank and as the individual preparing the settlement statements.
Similarly, in each of the other five transactions, the buyers were required to bring a total of more than $315,000 to the closings in order for the closings to proceed and mortgage funds to be released – otherwise Michael Gangadeen was required by Wells Fargo to stop the closings and not proceed.
It is alleged that in three instances, the buyers did not pay a total of $187,650 that was due at the closings and that the closings proceeded – with Michael Gangadeen allegedly signing certifications as the bank’s attorney attesting that the money due from the buyers was paid.
Finally, it is alleged that a review of Capital One Bank business records pertaining to Michael Gangadeen’s escrow account showed that Gangadeen made disbursements of the mortgage proceeds to himself.

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