Guyana-born attorney Cheddi Goberdhan on January 10 pleaded guilty in Manhattan Federal Court to taking part in a US$23M mortgage fraud scheme.
He was the latest of a number of Guyanese involved in the racket to plead guilty and faces a maximum sentence of 210 years in prison.
In a press release, Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that Goberdhan, a real estate attorney, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Shira A. Scheindlin to a seven-count indictment charging him with conspiracy to commit bank and wire fraud, and six counts of bank fraud, in connection with a scheme that defrauded banks of more than US$23 million in home mortgage loans.
Goberdhan was said to have made hundreds of thousands of dollars in illicit profits from the scheme, in which he worked closely with corrupt loan officers of GuyAmerican Funding, a mortgage brokerage firm in Queens, New York. He is the ninth defendant convicted of participating in this fraud.
Bharara said: “Cheddi Goberdhan carried out an elaborate subterfuge designed to steal millions of dollars in home mortgage loans. Instead of serving as the gatekeeper whom the banks relied upon to prevent fraud, he abused his position of trust to line his own pockets. We will continue working with our law enforcement partners to prosecute those who commit mortgage fraud and jeopardize the stability of our financial institutions.”
According to the Superseding Indictment and statements during the proceedings in this case: Goberdhan participated in a huge mortgage fraud scheme via a branch office of GuyAmerican Funding located on Liberty Avenue, in Jamaica, New York. His co-conspirators in the scheme included, among others, the president of GuyAmerican Funding David Ramnauth, GuyAmerican loan officers: Peggy Persaud, Orette Killikelly and George Esso; individuals who recruited homeowners and “straw buyers”: Elton Lord, Rafick Baksh, Mahamood Hussain, and another real estate lawyer, Ravi Persaud. As part of the scheme, the co-conspirators arranged home sales between “straw buyers”—persons who posed as home buyers, but who had no intention of living in the mortgaged properties—and homeowners in financial distress who were willing to sell their homes.
“The GuyAmerican loan officers obtained mortgage loans for the sham deals by submitting fraudulent applications to banks and lenders, and using fraudulent representations about the supposed buyers’ net worth, employment, income, and plans to live in the properties. Frequently, the co-conspirators used the same straw buyer to obtain multiple mortgage loans. The co-conspirators kept some or most of mortgage proceeds for themselves, while the “straw buyers” ultimately defaulted on the mortgages, causing millions in losses to the banks and lenders”, the FBI release said.
Goberdhan functioned as the closing attorney and the straw buyers’ attorney on numerous mortgage loans originating through GuyAmerican Funding, including loans in which the same straw buyer was used to purchase several properties within a short period of time. Goberdhan supplied false documents to the banks, received the loan money from the banks into his attorney account, and made illegal payments from the sales proceeds to himself and his co-conspirators. His wife also owned the title company that was used for many of the transactions, in violation of New York disciplinary rules, which allowed him to further profit from the scheme, the release said.
Goberdhan, of Elmont, New York, will also be required to pay restitution to the victims of his scheme and to forfeit the proceeds of his crimes. He will be sentenced on April 13, 2011.
Ramnauth, Peggy Persaud, Killikelly, Rajnarine Singh, Lord and Taramatee Singh had previously pleaded guilty, and Ravi Persaud and Esso were convicted after trial. Two other defendants, Baksh and Hussain are fugitives. Bharara praised the investigative work of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and thanked it for its assistance in this case.
This case was part of “Operation Bad Deeds,” a joint federal, state, and local law enforcement operation targeting mortgage fraud crimes, announced on October 15, 2009, in which 41 defendants were charged in various mortgage fraud scams in New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and North Carolina.
This case was brought in coordination with US President Barack Obama’s Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force, on which Bharara serves as a Co-Chair of the Securities and Commodities Fraud Working Group.
The release said that the prosecution of the cases arising from “Operation Bad Deeds” is being overseen by the Office’s Complex Frauds Unit.
