June 12, 2014

Camarillo Woman Sentenced to 97 Months for Involvement in Mortgage Fraud Scheme

LOS ANGELES—Rosa Fernandez, 38, of Camarillo, was sentenced earlier today by United States District Court Judge John A. Kronstadt to 97 months in federal prison for her involvement in a mortgage fraud scheme.

Fernandez was arrested in June 2010 and charged along with nine other individuals in a federal indictment with scheming to defraud banks by falsifying loan applications and using bogus tax letters to vouch for borrowers. Fernandez originated numerous loans and earned substantial commissions. She pleaded guilty in February 2012 to three counts of bank fraud.

While pending sentencing, Fernandez defrauded another lender in connection with seeking a loan modification for one of her several properties, and she pleaded guilty to that offense as well. The two cases were consolidated for sentencing.

The District Court found that Fernandez was the leader and organizer of the bank fraud scheme and that she had obstructed justice by committing the loan modification fraud while on pretrial, post-conviction release in the mortgage fraud case. She was also ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $3,646,485.

The case was investigated by the FBI Ventura Resident Agency and the Ventura County District Attorney’s Office, with assistance from the IRS-Criminal Investigation, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development-Office of the Inspector General, the Federal Housing and Finance Administration-Office of the Inspector General, the U.S. Secret Service, and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations.