Florida Mortgage Loan Officer Brenda Ann Blair the mastermind behind a $2.4 Million mortgage fraud scheme. She was sentenced today to 27 months in prison. Her prison sentence is followed by five years of supervised release. Blair participated in a mortgage fraud scheme that obtained approximately $2.4 million worth of loans from federally backed institutions. Blair’s victims referred to her as the Blair Witch in reference to the 1999 horror movie, “The Blair Witch Project”.

Blair was charged on Dec. 4, 2014. She pleaded guilty on Dec. 19, 2014, for her Role In the $2.4 Million Mortgage Fraud Scheme. Blair admitted that she participated in a scheme from 2006 to 2008 to fraudulently obtain mortgage-backed loans from Washington Mutual Bank and SunTrust Bank. She also admitted that some of the money came from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.  The mortgage loans were obtained in approximately 16 different real estate transactions. The transactions produced actual losses in the approximate amount of $916,700.  This scheme also defrauded HUD which lost an additional $63,964, for a total loss of $980,664.

The essence of the $2.4 Million mortgage fraud scheme was to mislead lenders about the true creditworthiness of the borrowers. The scheme also hid the true value of the properties securing the loan. Blair and her cohorts made various misrepresentations on the loan applications about such topics as the employment status, income, assets and debts of the buyers.  The schemers would also falsify information to make it appear that the buyer had made a down payment when in fact he or she had not.

Some borrowers also purchased more than one property in a short period of time. This resulted in some mortgage loan liabilities not appearing on the borrowers’ credit reports and the mortgage loan applications.  Blair failed to report to the lenders that the borrowers had obtained other outstanding mortgage loans which affected their debt-to-income ratios. This would have also affected the lenders’ decision to approve the loans.