Four San Francisco Bay Area men, including a San Jose loan officer, have pleaded guilty to participating in a sweeping conspiracy to acquire $55 million in mortgage loans using falsified income information, divorce decrees, alimony checks and bank statements, the Justice Department said Thursday.
Three of the conspirators have pleaded guilty to creating 102 mortgage loans totaling $55 million based on false statements, forcing the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) to boost nearly half one million dollars to stop foreclosure on the insured loans.
The trio shall be sentenced in federal court in October. A fourth co-conspirator, who also pleaded guilty, is scheduled to go on trial in November.
“These defendants used their expertise in the mortgage industry to defraud inexperienced homebuyers and obtain loans for which they were not qualified,” said Ismail J. Ramsey, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of California, in a press release. “My office is committed to protecting all victims of fraud, whether they are federal agencies, Northern California residents, or – as happened here – both.”
Jose Tellez, a 27-year-old loan officer from San Jose, pleaded guilty on July 24 to conspiracy to commit wire fraud. In his guilty plea, he admitted that between 2019 and 2022, he assisted within the origination of greater than 30 loans totaling $17 million that he knew were based on fraudulent information provided by real estate skilled Tjoman Buditaslim, 52, of Daly City.
Buditaslim pleaded guilty on Wednesday, admitting he worked to rearrange the loans from 2018 to 2022. Jose de Jesus Martinez, a 59-year-old licensed real estate agent from Daly City, pleaded guilty on July 24 to conspiracy to commit bank fraud. As an actual estate agent, he referred clients to Buditaslim for a loan, despite the fact that he knew Buditaslim would use falsified documentation to provide them loans they might otherwise not be eligible for.
According to the press release, Martinez admitted to earning greater than half one million dollars in real estate commissions through the scheme. His clients received $27.7 million for 49 loans.
“The defendants used their knowledge and training in the mortgage industry to circumvent the rules and abused their positions of trust as real estate professionals and guardians of FHA-insured loans to line their own pockets,” said Mark Kaminsky, special agent answerable for the Western Region for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's Office of Inspector General, within the press release. “They created and issued false documents to provide loans to individuals who were unaware of their plans, for which those individuals would otherwise not have been eligible.”
The 4 conspirators were indicted by a grand jury in November 2023 and charged with multiple counts of wire fraud. Buditaslim, Holasek and Martinez were also charged with aggravated identity theft.
Sentencing for Buditaslim, Tellez and Martinez is scheduled for October 30. They face a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison plus a advantageous of $250,000 or twice the gross proceeds from the crime plus restitution, the press release said.
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