Saratoga couple indicted with $2.5 million fraud scheme

Stephen Sutliff, 37 and Nikole Sutliff, 32, have been indicted with a scheme to defraud mortgage lenders of over two million five hundred thousand dollars. The Albany County District Attorney’s Office will be prosecuting the case as the Saratoga County District Attorney has cited a potential conflict of interest in the case.

The Stephen and Nikole have both been charged with nine counts of grand larceny and one count of conspiracy. The indictment states that Nikole was the mortgage broker in the scheme and that another individual who has yet to be named acted as the title agent and closed the mortgage loans.

The indictment alleges that the Sutliffs’ obtained four property loans on March 27, 2007 in Saratoga Springs. They acquired that same day approximately seven or eight mortgage loans on those properties that ranged between two hundred fifty thousand dollars and three hundred thousand dollars. The Sutliffs submitted applications for mortgage loans on all four properties to several lenders. The mortgage lenders all believed that they carried the first lien on the properties involved as all the loans closed on the same day.

The couple it is believed carried out this same scheme a few weeks prior on two other properties in Saratoga Springs.

The couple used the proceeds from the fraudulent mortgage loans to acquire Saratoga Winners in Colonie; Dream Street Tavern in South Glen Falls; a 2007 BMW 335i Sedan; a 2007 BMW X3 and a 2003 Chevrolet Silverado.

The couple later transferred the deed to Saratoga Winners to another individual whom is currently charged with burning the nightclub down for the insurance money. The nightclub at the time the Sutliffs purchased it was worth nine hundred fifty thousand dollars. The nightclub had been foreclosed on. Several other properties in the scheme have been foreclosed on as well.

Financial Crimes Bureau Chief, Chris Baynes commented that he had never seen so many properties and mortgages obtained in the same day on the same properties before this.

The properties involved in the case are located at 135 Washington Street; 16 Thoroughbred Drive; 162 Grand Avenue; 208 Grand Avenue and 54 Kirby Drive. The Sutliffs list their primary address as 54 Kirby Drive.

The Albany Country District Attorneys’ Office affirms that an indictment is merely an allegation that a crime may have occurred and that the defendants are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.