Maryland Man Sentenced 33 Months for Mortgage Fraud

ALEXANDRIA, VA—Wayne A. Lee, age 52, of Temple Hills, Md., was sentenced today to 33 months in prison, followed by five years of supervised release, and ordered to pay $1,073,475 in restitution. Lee pled guilty on Feb. 13, 2009, to mail fraud involving false information he provided to obtain multiple mortgage loans, which were ultimately foreclosed.

Dana J. Boente, Acting United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia; Gregory Campbell, Postal Inspector in Charge, U.S. Postal Inspection Service; and Joseph Persichini Jr., Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI Washington Field Office, made the announcement after sentencing by United States District Judge Claude M. Hilton.

According to court documents, from September 2006 to May 2007, Lee purchased four homes for $570,000 each in Woodbridge, Va., and submitted a uniform residential loan application to various banks falsely stating that each home would be his primary residence. He also submitted settlement statements which failed to disclose to the mortgage lender that he would receive a total of $263,800 in kickbacks after closing from the sellers. Lee later defaulted on the mortgage loans, which the lenders subsequently foreclosed at a total loss of $1,073,475.

Lee also admitted in court documents that from April 2007 to May 2007, he assisted a family member in preparing false statement to purchase an additional three homes in Woodbridge, Va., and mortgage lenders relied on these statements to issue loans to the family member totaling $1,680,000. Court documents show that Lee received $132,000 in kickbacks through these transactions.

This case was investigated by the United States Postal Inspection Service and the FBI Washington Field Office. Assistant United States Attorney Inayat Delawala prosecuted the case on behalf of the United States.

A copy of this press release may be found on the website of the United States Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia at http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/vae. Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia at http://www.vaed.uscourts.gov or on https://pacer.login.uscourts.gov.