Egg harbor township, new jersey man pleads guilty to making false mortgage loan applications

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

May 12, 2011

 

CAMDEN, N.J. – A New Jersey man admitted today to making false mortgage loan applications so he could obtain financing to purchase two properties, which later went into default and caused losses to lenders of hundreds of thousands of dollars, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced.

Craig Alleva, 47, of Egg Harbor Township, N.J., pleaded guilty to an Information charging him with two counts of making false mortgage loan applications. He entered his guilty plea before Senior U.S. District Judge Joseph E. Irenas in Camden federal court.

According to documents filed in this case and statements made during Alleva’s guilty plea proceeding:

In or about November 2006, Alleva was approached by a person, M.F., to purchase two properties–one in Roselle, N.J. and the other in Los Angeles–because M.F. purportedly had a buyer, but the buyer could not purchase the properties for a few more months. According to Alleva, M.F. agreed to pay him $20,000 per property as Alleva’s fee for taking title to the properties for those few months. M.F. agreed to arrange financing. Alleva then filled out several mortgage loan applications and falsely stated on one or more of those applications that: (a) the source of the down payment was Alleva’s retirement funds; (b) no part of his down payments was borrowed; (c) his bank account contained $120,000 on the date of his applications; and (d) the source of the down payment was his checking and savings accounts. In fact, during December 2006, while these real estate transactions were occurring, M.F. wire-transferred funds to Alleva so that Alleva did not ultimately have to put up any of his own money towards the purchases of these properties. The funds that M.F. sent to Alleva included several months’ worth of mortgage payments, so that Alleva could pay the mortgages during the time he was to own the properties. When Alleva later could not contact M.F., he eventually defaulted on the mortgage loans, and he will owe approximately $525,000 in restitution to the lenders.

The two charges to which Alleva pleaded guilty each carry a statutory maximum penalty of 30 years in prison and a $1 million fine. Sentencing is scheduled for August 16, 2011.

U.S. Attorney Fishman credited special agents from the FBI’s Atlantic City Resident Agency, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Michael B. Ward in Newark, with the investigation leading to the guilty plea.

The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Howard Wiener of the United States Attorney’s Office Criminal Division in Camden.

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Defense Counsel: Edwin J. Jacobs, Jr., Atlantic City, N.J.

Alleva, Craig Information

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