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Guyanese extradited from Trinidad indicted in US for US$50M mortgage fraud
Indicted: Ravindranauth Roopnarine
The last co-defendant in a US$50M mortgage fraud scheme targeting Guyanese residents in Florida and other states was indicted Thursday, according to the U.S.A States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida.
Ravindranauth Roopnarine, 55, was the remaining co-defendant among four named in a 2010 indictment for a fraud scheme spanning more than 150 residential real estate properties in Miami-Dade, Indian River, Orlando, and Orange counties.
Gergawattie Seecharan, Bhaardwau Seecharan and Linda Rovetto previously pleaded guilty to their participation in the scheme.
A Guyanese national, Roopnarine had been living in Trinidad and Tobago before recently returning to the United States after waiving extradition charges.
Roopnarine’s attorney Gregory Morse was not available for comment at the time of publication.
Roopnarine and his co-conspirators would single out residential properties, targeting distressed owners/sellers, and recruit straw borrowers for their names and credit histories, all the while submitting fraudulent loan applications for financing to buy the homes, according to the indictment. The group would hide the loan applications and divert the falsely gotten mortgage proceeds for personal use.
The co-conspirators would give the straw buyers money to use as down payments at closing, and pay the buyers around $10,000 per home in exchange for the use of their names and credit histories. Straw buyers were incentivized to recruit other buyers, getting about $5,000 for each referral, according to the indictment.
Roopnarine faces up to 30 years for conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud, up to 20 years for money laundering, up to 30 years for conspiracy to commit bank fraud, and more, including monetary fines.
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