Florida indicts 10 in Miami flipping scheme

The United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Jeffrey Sloman announced on February 3rd the indictments of ten individuals in a Miami flipping scheme. Mr. Sloman was joined in his announcement by John Gillies, Federal Bureau of Investigation Special Agent in Charge of Miami Field Office and C. Ed Slagle, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Special Agent in Charge.

The ten individuals indicted include Yamil Herrera, age 38; Alain Hernandez age 41; Ricelda Hernandez, age 44; Maria Herrera, age 40; Samantha Portales, age 43; Edel Martinez, age 37; Osiris Garcia, age 41; and Silvio De Paz age 46 all from Miami.  Ana G Blanco, age 35 and Luis R. Martinez, age 42 from Hialeah.

The indictments against the ten individuals include one count of conspiracy to commit wire and bank fraud, eleven counts of substantive wire fraud and five counts of substantive bank fraud.

The individuals indicted are alleged to have defrauded three mortgage institutions of over twenty four million dollars in mortgage loan proceeds. The maximum sentence each defendant is facing is thirty years in federal prison on each count of conspiracy and bank fraud and twenty years in prison for each count of wire fraud.

The indictment alleges that the ten individuals financed six properties in Miami-Dade County. Yamil Herrena, Alain and Ricelda Hernandez were the shouts who found the properties and the recruited friend and family as straw buyers to purchase the properties involved. Alain Hernandez through Miami Dade Mortgage Professionals along with Ricelda completed the mortgage loan applications and submitted the fraudulent documents to the mortgage institutions.

Maria Herrera, Samantha Portales, Edel Martinez, Osiris Garcia, Luis Martinez and Silvio De Paz all acted as straw buyers in the purchase transactions. Ana Blanco worked at Trinity Closing Group and conducted all the closings for the conspirators. Blanco often disbursed loan proceeds to the seller before the closing actually took place, so the buyer purchasing the property would have funds to close on the purchase. The conspirators made arrangements to pay on the mortgage until they could be flipped and a profit made. The conspirators eventually ran out of funds and stopped making payments on the mortgages allowing the loans to go into foreclosure. The result was over seven million dollars in losses to Washington Mutual, Impac Lending Group, Loan City and other lending institutions.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Cristina Perez Soto. Mr. Sloman applauded the efforts of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation for their work in bringing the case to indictment.

Mr. Sloman stated that while an indictment is merely an accusation that a defendant is guilty of the charge all individuals are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.


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