Kalamazoo Couple Plead Guilty to Money Laundering Relating to Mortgage Fraud
| U.S. Attorney’s Office November 18, 2010 |
GRAND RAPIDS, MI—Larry Alan Rask, age 59, and Terry Ann Rask, age 51, husband and wife from Kalamazoo, Michigan, pled guilty to a charge of money laundering on November 17, 2010, U.S. Attorney Donald A. Davis announced today. The plea came as the result of a felony information and plea agreement filed on October 22, 2010.
According to court documents, the money laundering violation related to mortgage proceeds the Rasks obtained by providing false information to mortgage lender Washington Mutual Bank. According to the Plea Agreement, during 2005 through 2007, the Rasks purchased 25 residences in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Terry Rask was the applicant for all of the mortgages, and she substantially overstated her income on the loan applications. Terry Rask was a daytime manager and hostess at a restaurant located in Kalamazoo, and Larry Rask was unemployed.
The guilty plea covers the purchase of a residence located at 1009 Lake Street in Kalamazoo, Michigan. The Rasks had borrowed $121,600 from Washington Mutual Bank for the purchase of the property. As with the other mortgage applications, Terry Rask substantially overstated her income. The Rasks made a down payment of $30,086 to Washington Mutual Bank at closing, but failed to tell the bank that $10,100 of the down payment had been lent to them from the mortgage broker who handled the transaction. The Rasks finalized the purchase of this property on August 28, 2006. The sellers of the property received approximately $36,425 from the closing proceeds and from this amount they gave $27,158 to the Rasks as a kickback. The Rasks did not reveal the kickback to the lender or the title company.
The defendants face a maximum penalty of 10 years’ imprisonment; three years’ supervised release, and a $250,000 fine. Sentencing is scheduled for March 21, 2011. The IRS Criminal Investigation Division and the Federal Bureau of Investigation investigated this case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Julie Ann Woods is the prosecutor.