— A Chesapeake woman convicted of conspiring to commit mail and wire fraud was sentenced to four years in prison Monday in federal court.
U.S. District Judge Robert G. Doumar sentenced Victoria L. Allen, 57, to 48 months in prison following her conviction on conspiring to commit mail and wire fraud charges, said Neil H. MacBride, U.S. Attorney for Eastern District of Virginia, Tuesday. She was also ordered her to pay $1.9 million in restitution.
Allen pleaded guilty to the charges in December related to her connection with a wide-ranging mortgage fraud scheme in Hampton Roads. The scheme resulted in losses of nearly $2 million and involved over 30 property transactions, a U.S. Attorney's Office news release said.
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According to court documents, Allen was one several conspirators in the case that included Ephrain Harris, owner and operator of Can Do Accounting in Newport News, who served as a tax preparer and accountant. It also included Shavonda York, owner of USA Processing and Destiny Consulting who worked as a mortgage broker; Tamiko Alston who operated a local title company; and Darrell Booker who was a local business owner. Allen was a loan originator and branch manager for First Horizon Home Loan Corp., which was a mortgage lender located in Chesapeake.
Court documents said the conspirators would prepare and submit false documents to First Horizon to obtain money to pay for closings on residential properties. They also used seller proceeds to fund the property transactions and purchase cashier's checks with the knowledge or consent of the mortgage lender. These checks were then used to fund required closing costs and down payments. Alston would create two settlement statements to conceal the disbursements.
The Federal Housing Administration maintains a database named "Neighborhood Watch" that is used to track the performance of approved brokers and lenders. First Horizon had a seriously delinquent ratio of 30.30 percent for the time period of July 1, 2008 through June 30, 2010.
Harris pleaded guilty in October 2010 and was sentenced to 41 months in prison; York pleaded guilty in May 2009 and was sentenced to 25 months in prison; Alston pleaded guilty July 13, 2010 and was sentenced 25 years; and Booker pleaded guilty in October 2010 and was sentenced to 21 months.