Detroit Man Sentenced for $650,000 Real Estate Loan Fraud

RICHMOND, Va. – A Detroit man was sentenced yesterday to six years in prison for fraudulently conspiring to obtain over $650,000 in advance fees from borrowers seeking real estate loans.

According to court documents, Roscoe Copeland, 49, was the founder and CEO of Alexis Realty Solutions LLC (ARS), which purported to be an alternative funding source for prospective borrowers seeking loans for real estate purchases. ARS catered to customers who had poor credit ratings or were otherwise unable to qualify for a loan from retail banks or other traditional funding sources. ARS offered unrealistically competitive interest rates to their customers, including as low as 1% for a traditional 30-year fixed mortgage.

Copeland and his co-defendant, Dawnn Long, ARS’s chief operating officer, claimed that ARS was a private lender with no “middleman,” and that the company had access to specialized bond funding at discounted rates. As part of the fraudulent scheme, prospective borrowers paid ARS an upfront fee, typically 3% of the loan amount, to purportedly secure a bond necessary to obtain the loan. Copeland and Long also recruited individuals known as “consultants,” many of whom were real estate brokers or agents, to find prospective borrowers and direct them to ARS. Consultants were told that ARS would pay them a percentage of ARS’s proceeds after the loans were funded.

During the conspiracy, which lasted from approximately January 2017 to January 2018, Copeland and Long knowingly made repeated false statements to both prospective borrowers and consultants. These misrepresentations included that: (1) the advance fees paid by customers would be held in escrow; (2) the customers’ advance fees would be repaid in full if their loans did not fund within a set period; and (3) ARS was a private lender with no middleman.

In fact, not a single customer of ARS received a loan. Twenty-six prospective borrowers sent Copeland and Long over $650,000 in advance fees, the vast majority of which Copeland and Long spent on lavish personal expenses. Many of the victims suffered substantial financial hardship, including filing for bankruptcy, periods of homelessness, or delaying retirement, as a result of Copeland’s fraud scheme.

Jessica D. Aber, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, and David J. Scott, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Washington Field Office Criminal Division, made the announcement after sentencing by Senior U.S. District Judge John A. Gibney, Jr.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Brian Hood and Kenneth R. Simon, Jr. prosecuted the case.

A copy of this press release is located on the website of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia. Related court documents and information are located on the website of the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia or on PACER by searching for Case No. 3:22-cr-152.