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Old Tappan lawyer admits mortgage fraud

An Old Tappan lawyer today admitted participating in a $400,000 mortgage fraud scheme out of his Hackensack office.

Photo Credit: Cliffview Pilot

Michael R. Senick, 63, is looking at up to 30 years in prison, and up to $1 million in fines, depending on the sentence U.S. District Court Judge Jerome B. Simandle gives him in Camden on May 18.

Senick had an accomplice who found straw buyers with good credit scores but not enough credit to qualify for mortgages. Others submitted applications in the buyers’ names with inflated income and assets, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman said.

The accomplices helped government investigators make the case against Senick and weren’t charged.

Senick handled the closings after ginning up documents, some of which were insured by the Federal Housing Administration, to make it seem the buyers put up money when they really didn’t.

The object was to profit from inflated sale prices. The accomplices then got a cut, court papers show.

He credited special agents from the FBI’s Atlantic City Resident Agency and the HUD-Office of Inspector General in Philadelphia with the investigation that led to today’s guilty plea.

Assistant U.S. Attorney R. Stephen Stigall of the U.S. Attorney’s Office Criminal Division in Camden handled the case.






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