William J. Edwards, Acting United States Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio, announced that a federal grand jury in Cleveland, Ohio, returned a fourteen count indictment today against Richard Alvarez and Marcus Adkins in a mortgage fraud scheme. The indictment charges Alvarez with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and seven additional counts of wire fraud. Marcus Adkins is charged with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and six additional counts of wire fraud.

Richard Alvarez, age 38, resides in Medina, Ohio, and Marcus Adkins, age 32, resides in Lorain, Ohio.

The indictment alleges that during the period from about February 2005 through June 2006, Richard Alvarez and Marcus Adkins partnered in approximately thirteen (13) real estate transactions involving properties located in and around Cleveland and Toledo, Ohio. The indictment further alleges that as part of their agreement and conspiracy defendants purchased these properties from the sellers at market value, but inflated the purchase price for each of the properties on the loan applications to the mortgage companies. The indictment alleges that the defendants claimed the additional money was for repairs and/or improvements to the properties, but these repairs were never completed. In addition to inflating the purchase prices and fraudulently retaining the excess money, the indictment also alleges that defendants Alvarez and Adkins further falsified the mortgage applications by fraudulently stating the source of the down payment funds and closing costs, submitting false appraisals which inflated the true value of the properties, claiming false second mortgages by which the defendants obtained additional funds from the properties, false leases and rental agreements which concealed their true income, and falsely verifying of existing of deposited funds had not actually been deposited in escrow. The indictment alleges that Adkins and Alvarez did all of this in order to deceive and defraud mortgage lenders, title companies and others.

If convicted, the defendants’ sentences will be determined by the Court after review of factors unique to this case, including the defendants’ prior criminal records, if any, each defendants’ role in the offense, and the characteristics of the violation. In all cases the sentences will not exceed the statutory maximum and in most cases it will be less than the maximum.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Mark S. Bennett and John D. Sammon, following an investigation by the Cleveland offices of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

An indictment is only a charge and is not evidence of guilt. Defendants are entitled to a fair trial in which it will be the government’s burden to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.