Florida MLO Indicted On Bank Fraud, Aggravated ID Theft

A Florida mortgage loan officer could face more than 90 years in prison after being indicted on charges of creating an elaborate mortgage fraud scheme that included creating children that didn't exist and forging federal judges names on documents in an effort to approve mortgages for unqualified borrowers.

Omayra Ujaque, 52, of Saint Cloud, Fla., is charged with three counts of bank fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft, according to an indictment unsealed on Tuesday and released by Roger B. Handberg, the U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Florida.

If convicted, Ujaque could face up to 30 years in federal prison on each bank fraud count and a mandatory consecutive 2 years’ imprisonment for the aggravated identity theft count.

Aggravated identity theft is different from identity theft because it involves not only stealing another person’s identity, but also then committing a crime with the stolen ID. 

According to the indictment, Ujaque, in her capacity as a licensed mortgage loan officer, “created and executed a mortgage fraud scheme targeting the financial institution where she worked.” The indictment does not name her employer, identifying it only as “Mortgage Company 1.”

Based on information in the indictment, the scheme cost her employer nearly $671,000 in mortgage loans that should not have been approved.

The indictment states that it is not known when Ujaque began the scheme, stating that it began “at least as early as in or around January 2015, and continuing through in or around June 2019.”

Under the scheme, the indictment states, Ujague falsified borrowers’ income through “completely fabricated or inflated monthly child support payments on mortgage loan applications that she signed and certified to the financial institution’s underwriting department.” The indictment states she did that to “ensure that otherwise unqualified persons were approved for mortgage loans.”

In addition, the indictment states, Ujaque created “fictitious Final Judgments of Dissolution of Marriage and Final Orders Modifying Child Support, showing that the borrowers were entitled to receive non-existent monthly child support payments.” According to the indictment, she then forged the signatures of judges from the U.S. Circuit Court of the Ninth District of Florida on the fabricated child support modification and dissolution of marriage documents. 

“Ujaque then created bogus Florida Department of Revenue statements showing the party purportedly paying monthly child support payments to the borrowers, and manufactured phony prepaid debit card statements showing the borrowers purportedly withdrawing the non-existent monthly child support payments,” the indictment states.

In most cases, the children did not exist or the borrowers had never been married, the indictment states. 

Ujaque submitted the bogus paperwork to the financial institution to support the false monthly income on the loan applications, the indictment states. Based on Ujaque’s misrepresentations, the financial institution approved and funded the mortgage loans.

For each charge of bank fraud, the indictment lists an individual transaction, including the loan closing date and the approximate amount of the mortgage loan. It also lists a redacted location for each affected property. 

• For Count 1, a loan of approximately $182,692 closed on April 1, 2015, for a property located in Saint Cloud, Fla.
• For Count 2, a loan of approximately $299,465 closed on May 31, 2019, for a property located in Kissimmee, Fla., and
• For Count 3, a loan of approximately $188,522 closed on April 12, 2019, for a property located in Saint Cloud, Fla.

Combined, the three loans total $670,679.

In addition to facing decades in prison, the indictment states that, if convicted, Ujaque must “forfeit to the United States … any property constituting, or derived from, proceeds obtained, directly or indirectly, as a result of such violation."

The case was investigated by the Federal Housing Finance Agency – Office of Inspector General; the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development – Office of Inspector General; and the Florida Office of Financial Regulation. It will be prosecuted by Special Assistant United States Attorney Chris Poor.