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A Methuen attorney and a Methuen loan officer pleaded guilty Friday in connection with a sweeping conspiracy to defraud banks and mortgage companies by engaging in sham short sales of residential properties in the Merrimack Valley.
Separately, a Methuen real estate broker was arrested on Wednesday, March 22, on related charges, and a Dunstable attorney was sentenced after pleading guilty to participating in the same conspiracy.
Jasmin Polanco, 37, a real estate closing attorney, and Vanessa Ricci, 40, a mortgage loan officer, each pleaded guilty Friday to one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud. Ricci’s sentencing is scheduled for June 22, 2017. Polanco’s sentencing hearing has not yet been scheduled.
Separately, a real estate broker from Methuen, Greisy Jimenez, 49, was indicted this week on two counts of bank fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud in connection with the same alleged scheme. In addition, U.S. District Court Judge Rya W. Zobel on March 22 sentenced Hyacinth Bellerose, 51, a real estate closing attorney from Dunstable, to time served and one year of supervised release to be served in home detention.
The charges arise out of an alleged scheme to defraud various banks via bogus short sales of homes in Haverhill, Lawrence and Methuen in which the purported sellers remained in their homes, with their debt substantially reduced, according to a statement from the Department of Justice.
The alleged conspiracy began in approximately August 2007 and continued through June 2010. As part of the alleged scheme, Jimenez, Polanco, Ricci, Bellerose and others submitted materially false and misleading documents to numerous banks in an effort to induce them to permit the short-sales, thereby releasing the purported sellers from their unpaid mortgage debts, while simultaneously inducing the purported buyers’ banks to provide financing for the deals.
The charge of bank fraud and conspiracy to commit bank fraud provides for a sentence of no greater than 30 years in prison and a fine of $1 million.
The full text of the consent order is available here.
