The Blotter

A suburban Chicago businessman who schemed with an attorney and two others to sell millions of dollars in phony mortgages has been sentenced to 11 years in federal prison.

A Fort Meyers, Fla., man was arrested for his role in an alleged mortgage fraud scheme. He was charged with violating Florida’s mortgage loan and loan originator laws, communications fraud, filing false documents against real property, and mortgage fraud.

A federal grand jury has returned an indictment charging two people from Brandywine, Md., with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bank fraud, the substantive charge of bank fraud, false statement in a passport application, and aggravated identity theft.

A Portland, Ore., man pleaded guilty to perpetrating a bank fraud scheme whereby he used a residential property he did not own as collateral for obtaining a bank loan worth more than $316,000.

A Bergen County, N.J., man was sentenced to time in prison for his role in a scheme to defraud financial institutions of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

A former unlicensed mortgage broker pleaded guilty to a criminal information charging him with stealing $4.7 million in mortgage refinancing proceeds meant to pay off existing mortgages of his clients.

A federal jury found a Petaluma, Calif., man guilty of 35 counts in a bank fraud scheme that sought to fraudulently eliminate mortgages and then profit on the subsequent home sales.

A West Hollywood man was sentenced to federal prison for orchestrating a real estate fraud scheme that victimized more than 2,000 homeowners, involved fraudulent filings that affected the title to properties across the country and caused more than $7 million in losses.

The former president of an escrow and title company was sentenced to prison for misappropriating $715,000 of closing funds in connection with 48 real estate transactions for which she served as the settlement agent.

A former Hudson County, N.J. sheriff’s officer was charged for making false statements to a bank in connection with an application to discharge a mortgage through a fraudulent short sale.