Federal Agencies Gain Assistance From Commission in Fraud Cases

The Real Estate Commission has worked with various federal agencies to assist in the investigation of several mortgage fraud cases recently resolved in the federal criminal system.

On December 14, 2009, William Roosevelt Cloud was sentenced in a Charlotte federal court to 27 years of imprisonment. After a two-week trial, Cloud was convicted of conspiracy to commit mortgage fraud, three counts of mail fraud, 13 counts of bank fraud, one count of money laundering conspiracy, and six counts of money laundering, all related to his role in a large mortgage fraud scheme. Prior to his trial, 19 other participants in the scheme had already pled guilty, including Cloud’s wife.

Federal prosecutors in the Western District showed that Cloud and others purchased and immediately flipped homes in the Charlotte area after artificially inflating the values of the homes. They recruited buyers by promising them they could buy an investment home with no money down, offering to place tenants in the homes, and assuring the buyers that the homes would be resold within a short period for a profit, at which time the buyers would be repaid for participating. Instead, the houses did not sell and went into foreclosure, leaving the buyers with their credit ruined and the lenders with homes for which they had loaned more than the true value of the properties.

In another case, Mary Rose Wright was charged in November, 2009, in federal court in the Eastern District of North Carolina with conspiracy and wire fraud related to a separate mortgage fraud scheme.

Wright submitted an offer to purchase a Raleigh, North Carolina property for $1,650,000.00. She obtained a power of attorney giving her the authority to execute the purchase documents for the property on behalf of the buyer, who was also involved in the scheme.

Wright prepared a false verification of employment, false tax returns, and a false bank statement to assist the buyer in obtaining a loan in the transaction. She also submitted a loan application to the lender that contained false information. The lender made the loan and after closing Wright moved into the property. No mortgage payments were ever made, and the property went into foreclosure.