Former unlicensed mortgage broker Brent Kaufman pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Kiyo Matsumoto to a criminal information charging him with stealing $4.7 million in mortgage refinancing proceeds meant to pay off the existing mortgages of his clients. When sentenced, Kaufman faces up to 30 years in prison, as well as forfeiture and a fine of up to $1 million.
Jacquelyn Kasulis, acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, Michael Driscoll, assistant director-in-charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, New York Field Office (FBI), Robert Manchak, special agent-in-charge, Federal Housing Finance Agency, Office of Inspector General (FHFA-OIG), and Darnell Edwards, acting inspector-in-charge, U.S. Postal Inspection Service, New York Division (USPIS), announced the guilty plea.
According to court filings and facts presented during the plea proceeding, Kaufman worked as an unlicensed mortgage broker and often assisted clients in Queens and Long Island with refinancing mortgages. At the closing for a mortgage refinancing, the money from the new mortgage is supposed to be wired to the financial institution that holds the existing mortgage so that it can be paid off. Between 2016 and 2019, Kaufman, together with others, engaged in a scheme to defraud Home Point Financial Corp., LoanDepot.com LLC and United Wholesale Mortgage and other mortgage lenders by obtaining, and attempting to obtain, monies and funds from the lenders by means of materially false representations. Specifically, Kaufman provided incorrect wire routing information to the lenders for the existing mortgages. Instead of wiring the funds to the correct financial institution, the funds were instead transferred to bank accounts controlled by Kaufman. As a result, the existing mortgages were not paid off—leaving the clients with two mortgages on their homes—and Kaufman stole the funds for his own personal use.
During the period of the charged conduct, Kaufman stole more than over $4.7 million, some of which he used to make mortgage payments on the existing mortgages or to eventually pay off those mortgages to avoid detection of his scheme. When Kaufman stopped paying the existing mortgages, several of his clients’ homes were foreclosed on. Victims of the scheme ultimately suffered a loss of approximately $2.5 million.
The government’s case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jonathan Siegel and Laura Mantell.