Four Suburban Men Charged in Mortgage Fraud Scheme

Robert D. Grant, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Patrick J. Fitzgerald, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, announced today the filing of criminal charges against four west suburban men in connection with a mortgage fraud scheme.

The charges were contained in an indictment returned last week by a Federal Grand Jury in Chicago and were unsealed late Tuesday afternoon. The indictment charges three brothers, AHSAN M. MOINUDDIN, age 39; MOSHIN M. MOINUDDIN, age 36; and MUBEEN M. MOINUDDIN, age 33, all of 115 Hesterman Drive in Glendale Heights, Illinois; along with a fourth man, identified as MOISES AGUILERA, age 40, of 3517 South 56th Street in Cicero, Illinois, with multiple counts of Wire Fraud and Identity Theft, both of which are felony offenses.

According to the indictment, the three MOINUDDIN brothers, who were employed as loan officers with First Choice Mortgage, a licensed mortgage broker located in Bloomingdale, Illinois, and AGUILERA devised and participated in a scheme to defraud Argent Mortgage Company, a Rolling Meadows, Illinois based mortgage lender, out of nearly $1 million between 2004 and 2006. The indictment alleges that this fraud was accomplished by submitting loan applications containing materially false statements, which included false and stolen identities and the use of “straw buyers”.

The indictment also identifies three specific properties, all located in DuPage County, which were purchased by the MOINUDDIN’s under false pretenses and which subsequently went into default. The properties were listed as 2210 Concord Lane and 1132 North Anvil Court, both located in Addison, Illinois and 1174 Brighton Place in Glen Ellyn, Illinois.

The three MOINUDDIN brothers were all arrested Tuesday morning, without incident, by FBI Special Agents and Investigators from the Inspector General’s Office at the Department of Housing and Urban Development (DHUD). AGUILERA surrendered to FBI Agents, late Tuesday.

All four defendants appeared in U.S. District Court in Chicago, late Tuesday afternoon, before Magistrate Judge Michael Mason. All four defendants were released on bond, pending their next scheduled court appearance. If convicted of the charges filed against them, all four defendants face a possible sentence in excess of 100 years incarceration.

This case was investigated jointly by the Chicago FBI and Investigators from the DHUD. The charges announced today were the result of “Operation Mad House,” which is a long-term undercover investigation targeting mortgage fraud in the Chicago area.

The public is reminded that an indictment is not evidence of guilt and that all defendants in a criminal case are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.