Federal attorneys filed charges against 9 people for $92 million WaMu mortgage fraud scheme.
New York, NY(JusticeNewsFlash.com)–The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Brooklyn filed federal charges against, real estate developer Thomas Kontogiannis plus eight other defendants in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn, New York on Thursday. Reuters reported lawyers for the federal government charged nine persons with conspiracy to commit bank and wire fraud through an orchestrated $92 million mortgage fraud scheme aimed at Washington Mutual Bank and a subsidiary of Credit Suisse Group AG, DLJ Mortgage Capital Inc.
Agents with the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) www.fbi.gov and prosecuting attorneys allege Kostogiannis used New York City property developments in Brooklyn and Queens to defraud Washington Mutual and Credit Suisse Group of $92 million through fraudulent loans. Federal court documents claim the nine defendants, charged with federal fraud, sold properties with values based on false appraisals to finance projects. The defendants were so blatant as to provide appraisals of properties not even built and listed fake addresses. Government lawyers say the real estate developer used loans, financed by lenders under their control, and then sold the bogus mortgage loans to Washington Mutual and DLJ. The defendants will be arraigned in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn before the judge, on Thursday afternoon, plus face additional charges of bank fraud and money laundering.
This is another legal and financial blow which has come to light recently since former Washington Mutual Bank (WaMu), now Washington Mutual Inc., was seized by the U.S. Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS) and placed into the hands of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) http://www.fdic.gov on September 25, 2008. According to Wikipedia http://www.wikipedia.org a 10-day bank run, which resulted in $16.4 billion in withdrawals, caused the federal government to step in, take over, and then sell off the banking subsidiaries to JPMorgan Chase for a mere $1.9 billion. JPMorgan chase acquired the bank with $33 billion in assets, minus its unsecured debt or equity claims as outlined by Wiki. On September 26, 2008, the very next day, JPMorgan Chase filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in Delaware. Washington Mutual Bank was the largest United States’ savings and loan association, and its closure and receivership, by the federal government, remains the largest bank failure in American history. The United States District Court, for the District of Columbia, received a lawsuit filing by lawyers representing Washington Mutual Inc., on March 20, 2009, demanding $13 billion in damages. Business litigation attorneys representing WaMu accuse the OTC and FDIC with the unjustified seizure of the bank and the ridiculously low sale price to JPMorgan Chase as part of its legal complaint. The U.S. Federal Bankruptcy Court in Delaware, in turn, received a counterclaim by attorneys representing JPMorgan Chase.
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