A federal grand jury has indicted six defendants for conspiracy in a $4.5 million mortgage fraud scheme:
- Bonnie Kathleen Kreamer, a/k/a Bonnie Meehan, 47, of Riva, Md.;
- Niesha Williams, 33, of Fort Washington, Md.;
- Rhonda Scott, 51, of Oxon Hill, Md.;
- Emeka Udeze, 37, of Bowie, Md.;
- Demetrius Peete, 45, of Manassas, Va.; and
- Gregory Green, 49, of Waldorf, Md.
The indictment was returned on Dec. 18, 2012, and unsealed upon the arrests of Kreamer, Peete, and Green.
The indictment was announced by U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod Rosenstein; Special Agent in Charge Stephen Vogt of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI); Special Agent in Charge Gene Morrison, Washington Field Office, U.S. Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General (OIG); Howard County Police Chief William McMahon; Special Agent in Charge Robert Jasinski of the U.S. Secret Service-Baltimore Field Office; and Howard County State’s Attorney Dario Broccolino.
The indictment alleges that Kreamer worked at Sanford Title Services LLC in Columbia, Md. In 2002, her Maryland license to issue title insurance policies was revoked. From June 2008 to January 2010, Kreamer, Williams, Scott, Udeze and Peete allegedly arranged for individuals, including Green, to buy and sell real estate so they could improperly obtain money from the transactions. Kreamer, Williams, Scott, Udeze, and Peete are alleged to have created multiple versions of settlement statements to deceive lenders, lien holders, buyers and sellers; and arranged for proceeds from mortgage transactions to be disbursed to shell companies created by the defendants in order to disguise that the money was really for their benefit.
Kreamer and Sanford Title failed to make required disbursements of settlement funds to pre-existing lien holders, funneling the money instead to themselves.
According to the indictment, Green, a former contract specialist with the Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice, agreed to make false representations to lenders when applying for real estate loans in return for secretly receiving a portion of the real estate proceeds to use as a down payment and for the monthly mortgage payments.
The defendants face a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine for the conspiracy.
Rosenstein praised the FBI, Department of Justice-OIG, Howard County Police Department, Secret Service, and Howard County State’s Attorney’s Office for their work in the investigation. Rosenstein thanked Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Colleen McGuinn assigned to this case from the Howard County States Attorney’s Office for assisting in this case and Assistant U.S. Attorney Harry Gruber, who is prosecuting the case.