Feds: Ridgefield Park Man Admits Role In Major Mortgage Fraud

A Ridgefield Park man admitted his role Thursday in a scheme to defraud mortgage lenders out of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Craig Carpenito credited special agents of the FBI and the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s Office of Inspector General with the investigation.
Photo Credit: *COURTESY: Federal Housing Finance Agency*

Jerry DeMarco

12/03/2020 1:46 p.m.

Dennys A. Tapia, 54, took a deal from the government, pleading guilty to a single count of conspiring to commit bank fraud, rather than go to trial.

Tapia and a number of unnamed co-conspirators produced bogus lease agreements, bank statements, pay stubs and employment verifications that secured mortgage loans for unqualified property buyers, as well as a “straw” borrower who participated in the scheme, U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito said.

A lender “issued a false and fraudulent cash-out refinance mortgage loan” for the phony applicant, “which resulted in Tapia earnings tens of thousands of dollars in profits,” the U.S. attorney said.

U.S. District Judge Stanley R. Chesler scheduled sentencing for April 17.

Carpenito credited special agents of the FBI and the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s Office of Inspector General with the investigation leading to Thursday’s teleconferenced guilty plea, secured by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Fayer of his Economic Crimes Unit of the U.S. Attorney’s Office and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Charlie Divine of the FHFA’s OIG.

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