Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that Manhattan real estate developer Michael Hershkowitz was sentenced to four years in prison for his participation in a $27 million Ponzi scheme involving fraudulent loans secured by nonexistent mortgages. According to the documents filed in the case in Manhattan federal court, Hershkowitz, working through a Manhattan real estate development company, The Kingsland Group Inc., and related entities (collectively, The Kingsland Group), fraudulently induced approximately 100 individuals tRead more

Acting United States Attorney Robert S. Cessar has announced that Robert Danenberg, a resident of Pittsburgh has plead guilty in federal court to a charge of wire fraud conspiracy in connection with a mortgage fraud scheme. Danenberg pleaded guilty to one count before United States District Judge Donetta Ambrose.Read more

A 15-count indictment has been filed against five defendants charged in a $14.6 million mortgage fraud scheme that resulted in at least 35 fraudulent mortgage loans, announced United States Attorney Michael L. Levy, Special Agent-in-Charge of the FBI Janice K. Fedarcyk, and Pennsylvania Secretary of Banking Steven Kaplan. Charged are Edward G. McCusker and John Alford Bariana, owners of Axxium Mortgage Inc., McCusker’s wife, Jacqueline, and Jeffrey A. Bennett and Stephen G. Doherty, owners of the Doylestown law firm Bennett & Doherty PC.Read more

Amidst all of the discussion of the mortgage crisis and the implementation of the Home Valuation Code of Conduct (HVCC), there has been lots of finger pointing, concerning who was at fault for the meltdown and what should and should not be done to fix the problem(s). Unless you have been in seclusion for the past year, you have heard of the attempts of New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo to keep appraisers separated from loan originators.Read more