New York City Woman Pleads Guilty in Mortgage Scheme

ROCHESTER, NY—U.S. Attorney William J. Hochul, Jr., announced today that Valine Taylor, 28, from New York City, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit mail fraud. The charge carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a fine of $40,000.

Assistant U.S. Attorney John J. Field, who is handling the case, stated that Taylor was indicted along with three other individuals—Tyshe Bankston, Bernard Lawson, and Jocelyn Joseph—in July 2010 for conspiring to defraud Flaherty Funding, a mortgage company located at 2595 Brighton Henrietta Town Line Road in Rochester, New York. Bankston, Lawson, and Joseph were straw buyers who agreed to participate in a scheme to obtain large mortgage loans from Flaherty Funding by signing false documents. These straw buyers had no intention of repaying the mortgages or of occupying the properties. In exchange for lending their names to the bogus transactions, the straw buyers received cash kickbacks or other valuable consideration.

Defendant Taylor agreed to participate in the scheme by locating and procuring people willing to participate in the fraud as straw buyers. In return for locating defendant Bankston as someone willing to be a straw buyer, defendant Taylor received a payment of $20,000.

As a result of the conspiracy, Flaherty Funding provided three mortgage loans in the amounts of $533,850, $533,850 and $646,300, totaling $1,714,000.

In June 2010, another participant in the conspiracy, Merrick Henry, pleaded guilty to one count of mail fraud for his role in the scheme to defraud Flaherty Funding.

The plea is a continuation of efforts by the United States Postal Inspection Service, Boston Division, under the direction of Acting Inspector in Charge Robert Malaby, the United States Postal Inspection Service, New York Division, under the direction of Inspector in Charge Ronald Verrochio, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, under the direction of James H. Robertson, Special Agent in Charge.

This law enforcement action is part of President Barack Obama's Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force. President Obama established the interagency Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force to wage an aggressive, coordinated, and proactive effort to investigate and prosecute financial crimes. The task force includes representatives from a broad range of federal agencies, regulatory authorities, inspectors general, and state and local law enforcement who, working together, bring to bear a powerful array of criminal and civil enforcement resources. The task force is working to improve efforts across the federal executive branch, and with state and local partners, to investigate and prosecute significant financial crimes, ensure just and effective punishment for those who perpetrate financial crimes, combat discrimination in the lending and financial markets, and recover proceeds for victims of financial crimes.