Delco man charged in $600k mortgage fraud at Shore
A Delaware County man was charged Thursday with joining a mortgage fraud conspiracy that resulted in losses of more than $600,000.Federal prosecutors said Michael J. Smith, 31, of Springfield, was a mortgage broker for companies in West Chester and Newtown Square, who schemed with John C. Lucidi, Jr. and Eric Maratea, among others, to buy properties at the Jersey Shore at inflated prices so buyers could receive kickbacks of tens of thousands of dollars. Smith, who was one of the buyers, schemed with Lucidi, Maratea and others between October 2006 and June 2007, to purchase properties in North Wildwood, N.J., authorities said. The indictment said that the kickbacks were not disclosed to various mortgage lenders and that Smith applied for the mortgages himself and helped others apply for mortgages using bogus information. Smith was charged with conspiracy, wire fraud and money laundering.
A Delaware County man was charged Thursday with joining a mortgage fraud conspiracy that resulted in losses of more than $600,000.
Federal prosecutors said Michael J. Smith, 31, of Springfield, was a mortgage broker for companies in West Chester and Newtown Square, who schemed with John C. Lucidi, Jr. and Eric Maratea, among others, to buy properties at the Jersey Shore at inflated prices so buyers could receive kickbacks of tens of thousands of dollars.
Smith, who was one of the buyers, schemed with Lucidi, Maratea and others between October 2006 and June 2007, to purchase properties in North Wildwood, N.J., authorities said. The indictment said that the kickbacks were not disclosed to various mortgage lenders and that Smith applied for the mortgages himself and helped others apply for mortgages using bogus information. Smith was charged with conspiracy, wire fraud and money laundering.
Maratea and an individual identified in the charging document as "B.K.," were buyers of Smith's properties but made few or no payments on their mortgages, forcing lenders to foreclose on the properties and resell them at a fraction of the unpaid balance to recover losses, the indictment said.
Smith profited from the scheme, the indictment said, by making inflated commissions on the transactions, by receiving kickbacks on his own purchases and by making a profit when he managed to flip them at inflated prices to other buyers.
Lucidi, of Jacksonville, Fla., who was also formerly a mortgage broker in West Chester and Newtown Square, pleaded guilty to mortgage fraud in August that cost banks more than $7 million between May 2005 and October 2008. He is to be sentenced next month and could face a prison term of nine to 11 years.
Maratea, who worked for a painter's union, was charged with conspiracy, wire fraud and related offenses by the U.S. Attorney on May 7. Court records indicate he has guilty plea hearing scheduled for June 19.