New London Residents Sentenced In Mortgage Fraud

Two New London residents will spend time in prison after receiving sentences for their participation in a New London County mortgage scam.

David B. Fein, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, announced on Thursday that 60-year-old Yunio Gonzalez and 45-year-old Jane Soulliere received prison terms of two years and 21 months, respectively. U.S. District Judge Alfred V. Covello sentenced the pair in the U.S. District Court in Hartford and also ordered both Gonzalez and Soulliere to serve two years of supervised release.

Gonzalez and Soulliere each pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and wire fraud.

The pair was accused of participation in a wide-ranging mortgage scam that took place from around 2004 to 2007. Fein said Jose Guzman, Maurizio Lancia, Stacey Petro and others used mortgage brokerage, property management, and home improvement companies to compensate buyers for the fraudulent purchase of real estate in New London County. This was done by getting loans from mortgage companies and originators based on the false information, which included income, assets, rent and employment history, and the buyers' intention to make the properties their primary residence. 

Fein said Gonzalez owned the bookkeeping and tax preparation service IEK Professional Services, which "was instrumental in providing false information to the lenders in connection with the purchases of a small number of properties." He said Gonzalez signed a letter from the company in February 2006 in connection with the purchase of property at 10 Thompson Court, falsely saying the buyer had been employed as a landscaping maintenance supervisor with the company The Cutting Edge. He said Gonzalez also made false statements to the lender to verify the information and to say he had prepared taxes for the buyer for at least three years.

Gonzalez was also a licensed real estate agent, and Fein said he had a member of his family buy property at 34 Montauk Ave. from him in a fraudulent sale in June of 2006. The information in this transaction included fraudulent loan applications, supporting documents, an open-end mortgage dead, and a HUD-1 settlement.

Fein said the two sales resulted in $295,762.17 in losses to lenders. Gonzalez must reimburse the full amount and was also ordered to forfeit $25,000 he personally received as a result of the transactions.

Soulliere was accused of acting as a buyer in the fraudulent purchase of five properties and recruiting another person who made the fraudulent purchase of four additional properties. Fein said lenders lost about $1 million as a result. Souilliere must make $901,152 in restitution and forfeit $28,000 received for her role in the scam.

Investigators believe over 200 fraudulent mortgages were filed in this way, and that many went into foreclosure at a loss to lenders of approximately $9 million. Sixteen people have entered guilty pleas on charges related to the scheme. Lancia, an attoney and mortgage broker, was sentenced earlier this month to 27 months in prison. Guzman and Petro have not yet been sentenced.

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