Atlanta Woman Sentenced to Three Years for Reverse Mortgage Fraud

Gia Joy Glasse-Harris of Atlanta has been sentenced to to three years and one month in prison by United States District Judge Amy Totenberg on charges of conspiring to commit mortgage fraud. In addition to the prison sentence, Glasse-Harris will serve the final six months in home confinement, to be followed by three years of supervised release, and ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $174,000.  According to U.S. Attorney Sally Quillian Yates, the charges and other information presented in court: From May 2009 through February 2010, Glasse-Harris engaged in a conspiracy to defraud that involved reverse mortgages. Glasse-Harris, who is not a senior citizen, attempted to take advantage of the reverse mortgage program by using forged deeds to transfer property into the name of a senior citizen, while fraudulently inflating the value of the property by more than five times the true value. Glasse-Harris then attempted to “sell” the property at the inflated value to a second senior citizen, using fraudulent “gift” letters to create a down payment, so that the senior citizen would appear to have equity in the property. Her attempt to obtain this reverse mortgage was declined by the lender, and her subsequent efforts at additional reverse loan fraud in the name of another senior citizen were thwarted by a government sting that implicated Glasse-Harris and others. “We will not stand by and allow criminals to victimize senior citizens, the FHA or the lenders, and we will continue our commitment to end the devastating effects of mortgage fraud,” said Yates.