Miami Man sentenced for fraud involving HELOC Loans
United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, Dana Boente; Chief of Police for the Alexandria Police Department, Earl Cook; Assistant Director in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation for the Washington field office, Joseph Persichini Jr .; and Special Agent in Charge of the United States Secret Service’s Washington field office, Jeffrey Irvine announced today that Henry “Uche” Obilo, 30, resident of Miami, Florida has been sentenced to prison for his role in a home equity fraud scheme.
Obilo is one of eight defendants in this case. Court records show that Obilo and his eight other co-conspirators used a website that allows you to obtain equity line of credit or HELOC information data for a fee. The conspirators used the information to pick their victims by loan holders who had large balances left on their equity lines of credit. The information they obtained included social security numbers, dates of birth, address, and name of the victim to be. The information they obtained allowed the conspirators to go online to change security questions on websites of the homeowners’ equity line of credit accounts. They then ordered credit reports on the victims in order to verify personal information and account balances.
The conspirators used the information obtained to call the victims mortgage provider and masqueraded themselves as the account holder. They requested transfers of the equity line balances into accounts they controlled. The funds where then transferred into accounts overseas that were also controlled by members of the conspiracy.
Obilo and his co-conspirators used spoofing services that mask caller identification systems, personal computer wireless internet access cards, pre-paid cell phones and the borrowers home number in order to continued to masqueraded themselves as the mortgage owner and allow them to avoid being identified.
The scheme has been linked to over thirty six million dollars in attempted fraud and over eleven million in actual losses to homeowners and lenders. Investigators have identified over one hundred eighty victims.
Obilo was sentenced to seven years and three months in federal prison by United States District Judge T.S. Ellis III. The judge also ordered Obilo to three years of supervised release upon completion of his sentence and order to pay restitution of over five hundred seventy thousand dollars.
The other conspirators in the case have already been sentenced. Abel Nnabue, 34, of Dallas was sentenced to four years and five months last January for his role. Precious Matthews, 27, of Miami was sentenced to four years and two months for his role last February. Brandy Anderson, 31 of Dallas, last February was sentenced to two years of probation and forty days of community confinement. Ezenwa Onyedebelu, 21, of Dallas also sentenced in February of last year received a sentence of three years and one month. Daniel Orjinta, 43, of Nigeria, was sentenced to three years and five months in March of 2009. Paula Gipson, 34, of Dallas was sentenced to one year and three months on September 4th.
The ringer of the conspiracy ring, Tobechi Onwuhara, 30, of Dallas is currently a fugitive. A warrant has been issued for his arrest. If you should have information about Mr. Onwuhara’s whereabouts please contact the Alexandria Police Department or your local Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Information about Mr. Onwuhara can be located at America’s Most Wanted website.
www.amw.com/fugitives/brief.cfm?id=59947
The case was investigated by the Alexandria Police Department; The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the United States Secret Service. Prosecuting the case were Assistant United States Attorney, John Eisinger and the Department of Justice’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section Trail Attorney Tyler Newby.
