Mortgage Lenders Stung in Alleged Scam

A multimillion-dollar scam by real estate agents and loan officers, in collusion with homebuyers, left mortgage lenders in the dust, authorities say. Two real estate agents and two mortgage loan officers were among nine people indicted for their roles in an alleged $11-million mortgage fraud scheme that involved paying buyers $100,000 each to purchase residential properties at inflated prices.

All in all, and unbeknownst to the mortgage lenders, the buyers allegedly received about $2 million from the mortgage loan proceeds.

The home purchases were allegedly structured so that a homebuyer would obtain a mortgage loan in excess of the actual price paid to a home seller; the scammers then pocketed the difference between the actual sales price and the inflated mortgage loan amount, according to the indictment brought Friday by a federal grand jury in Kansas City, Mo.