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Isaac DePaula, 40, of Brazil, had been on the run since federal authorities first charged him in a 2012 complaint and then a grand jury in U.S. District Court in Newark indicted him four years later.
He flew in to Newark Airport on Tuesday to face the indictment, which charges him with conspiracy to commit bank fraud and three counts of bank fraud, U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito said.
A federal judge ordered DePaula’s release pending further court action after a hearing in Newark, Carpenito said.
DePaula and a group of conspirators pulled off the scheme through a company called Premier Mortgage Services (PMS), the U.S. attorney said.
The thieves recruited straw buyers for whom they doctored documents to make it appear they could afford buying properties in low-income areas when they couldn’t, Carpenito said.
The conspirators then submitted the bogus documents as part of mortgage loan applications institutions and secured loan, he said.
Then they split the money, Carpenito said.
“In reality, the straw buyers had no means of paying the mortgages on the properties, many of which entered into foreclosure proceedings,” he said.
DePaula and his fellow loan officers at PMS “profited illegally by receiving a commission for each mortgage loan that they closed, and also profited illegally by diverting portions of the fraudulently obtained mortgage proceeds for themselves, often via shell corporations or nominee bank accounts,” Carpenito said.
All of the remaining defendants have already pleaded guilty and been sentenced for their roles in the scheme, the U.S. attorney said.
Co-defendant Rodrigo Costa remained at large, he said.
Carpenito credited special agents of the FBI, the IRS and the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s Office of the Inspector General for the investigation leading to today’s arrest.
Handling the case for the government are Assistant U.S. Attorneys Rahul Agarwal and Zach Intrater.
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