Anthony Garvin is accused of helping run a massive scheme that involved fraudulently flipping homes and stealing HELOC money
A New Jersey man has been indicted on federal charges for his alleged role in running a $30 million mortgage-fraud scheme.
Anthony Garvin, 49, has been charged with one count of bank fraud conspiracy and five counts of bank fraud. According to the US Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey, between 2011 and 2017, Garvin and others engineered fraudulent short-sale flips of various New Jersey properties with mortgages that were in default. Garvin and his co-conspirators were also alleged to have fraudulently obtained numerous home equity lines of credit using phony documents and information.
The conspirators allegedly arranged simultaneous fraudulent transactions involving the same property. In the first transaction, which involved the sale of the property by the current owner, the conspirators convinced the financial institution holding the mortgage to accept the sale of the property at a loss. The property was usually sold to a conspirator or an entity controlled by the fraud ring, the US attorney’s office said.
In the second transaction, Garvin and his partners allegedly flipped the same target property to a second buyer, who generally obtained a mortgage using phony loan applications, pay stubs, and other documentation provided by the fraud ring. The second transaction frequently closed for significantly more – sometimes even double – than the first transaction.
Garvin and his partners rigged the process at every step to maximize the difference between the two transactions and keep the victim banks from detecting the fraud, prosecutors said.
To obtain HELOCs, the group allegedly submitted loan applications in the name of straw borrowers who didn’t reside in the subject properties, using phony documentation to make it appear that the straw borrowers made more money than they actually did. The conspirators frequently applied for multiple HELOCs on the same property almost simultaneously, withholding from each lender the existence of the other applications.
The conspirators funneled their ill-gotten gains into various accounts they controlled.
If convicted, Garvin faced up to 30 years in prison and a $1 million fine for each count of bank fraud and conspiracy.
