Florida Loan Officer Sentenced in Connection with $2.5 Million Reverse Mortgage Fraud

A loan officer was sentenced Friday by U.S. District Court Judge William P. Dimitrouleas in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., for his participation in a nationwide $2.5 million reverse mortgage fraud scheme, the Justice Department announced.

Louis Gendason, 42, of Delray Beach, Fla., was sentenced to 70 months in prison, five years of supervised release and ordered to pay over $2 million in restitution. Gendason was the mastermind of this complicated reverse mortgage fraud scheme, which was designed to lure financially distressed elderly homeowners into applying for reverse mortgage loans, to create fictitious equity in their homes with fraudulent appraisals, and ultimately to steal that false equity from the seniors and their lenders. Gendason cultivated relationships with each of his co-conspirators and they executed their respective roles in the scheme at his behest. Kimberly Mackey, 47, of Pittsburgh, and Marcos Echevarria, 29, of Palm Beach, Fla., received prison sentences of 60 and 24 months, respectively, on Nov. 3, 2011. A third co-defendant, John Incandela, 25, of Palm Beach, was sentenced to 41 months in prison on Dec. 16, 2011. Gendason was the final defendant in the scheme to be sentenced.

Posted in: New Account Fraud