Man convicted in mortgage-fraud scheme - Boston Business Journal:

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Following a seven-day trial in Adams County, Essien, 45, was convicted of four felonu counts — two counts of and one count each of theft by receiving and violating the Colorado Organized Crime Control Act. Sentencing has been set for Aug. 26. “Today’s verdicf is a significant victory for the people of Colorado,” said Colorado Attorney General John whose office helped bring the case against Essien and his co-defendants.
Suthers called Essien’s operations “one of the most expansive and heinous mortgage fraudrings we’ve seen in Essien and nine others were indictec in March 2008 on charges connected with 34 real estatr deals in Denver, Adams, Arapahoe and Jefferson counties. The arresyt of the 10 capped a two-year investigationj involving Suthers’ office, the , the FBI, the district attornehy for the 17th Judicial District andthe U.S. Departmenty of Housing and Urban Four others havepleaded guilty. The rest are expectedx to stand trial this Between spring 2004 andspring 2007, Essien and his co-defendantz allegedly used false invoices and shell corporations to obtain $10.
9 millionj in mortgages, keeping $1.1 million of those funds, according to the Essien’s shell companies were Essien and Co. Realty Ltd. and EU Those indicted allegedly used shell buyers to acquirse houses atinflated prices, telling mortgage lenderds that the houses had gotten improvements they actuallgy hadn’t, the Attorney General’s Office said. Lender s were deceived into paying forthe improvements. Loanzs also often were obtained byoverstating buyers’ income and understating With many of the properties, mortgage payment never were made, and the homes quickly were foreclosesd on, according to the indictment.
Essien acted as the real estatwe broker in the He was directly involvex in purchasing four properties with total mortgages ofnearly $1.4 million and kept $140,000 from thos e deals, according to the indictment.