First Horizon Home Loans, USA Processing and Destiny Consulting, Can Do Accounting

Woman must pay back nearly $2M | WAVY.com | Newport News:

'via Blog this'Updated: Tuesday, 27 Mar 2012, 10:20 PM EDT

Published : Tuesday, 27 Mar 2012, 10:20 PM EDT

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. (WAVY) - The former branch manager of a loan corporation must pay nearly $2 million in restitution for a mortgage fraud scheme she and others organized.

Victoria L. Allen, 57, will also serve a four year prison sentence.

According to U.S. Attorney Neil MacBride, almost all involved in the scheme owned or managed companies which offered financial services.

Ephrain Harris owned and operated Can Do Accounting, in the City of Newport News and was engaged in preparing tax returns and other accounting services. Another conspirator, Shavonda York, worked as a mortgage broker and owned and operated USA Processing and Destiny Consulting. Tamiko Alston operated a local title company and Darrell Booker owned a local business. Harris, York, Alston and Booker have been convicted and sentenced for their participation in the conspiracy.

The way the scheme worked was the conspirators falsely obtained financing from Allen's former employer, First Horizon Home Loan Corp., to fund closings on residential properties. They would use seller proceeds to fund the property transactions and purchase cashier's checks without the mortgage lender knowing.

According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, a review of loan files and other documents showed Allen submitted false pay stubs or W-2 forms for at least 13 conventional loan transactions. The notes on certain loans were then purchased by other companies that sustained losses when the loans went into default and were sold at foreclosure.

A review of FHA loan files and other documents indicated the defendant knowingly submitted to the lender false pay stubs and/or W-2 forms for at least 19 FHA-insured loan transactions. The FHA maintains a database named “ Neighborhood Watch ” that is used to track the performance of FHA-approved brokers and lenders. According to Neighborhood Watch, for the time period July 1, 2008 through June 30, 2010, the branch of First Horizon Home Loansthat Allen supervised had a seriously delinquent ratio of 30.30 percent, the highest rate in the state of Virginia for that time period.

In all, the scheme resulted in close to $2 million in losses and over 30 property transfers.