LOS ANGELES – A 38-year-old woman was sentenced last week to eight years in prison for her involvement in a mortgage fraud scheme to defraud banks by falsifying loan applications and using bogus tax letters to vouch for borrowers, federal officials said.
U.S. District Court Judge John A. Kronstadt sentence Rosa Fernandez, of Camarillo which is in Ventura County.
Judge Kronstadt found that Fernandez was the leader and organizer of the bank fraud scheme and that she had obstructed justice by committing the loan modification fraud while on pretrial, post-conviction release in the mortgage fraud case. She was also ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $3.6 million.
Fernandez originated numerous loans and earned substantial commissions. She pleaded guilty in February 2012 to three counts of bank fraud.
Authorities said Fernandez was arrested in June 2010 and charged along with nine other individuals in a federal indictment with scheming to defraud banks by falsifying loan applications and using bogus tax letters to vouch for borrowers.
While pending sentencing, officials said Fernandez defrauded another lender in connection with seeking a loan modification for one of her several properties and she pleaded guilty to that offense as well.
These two cases were consolidated for sentencing.