71°
Thomas D’Anna, 38, owned two properties with his wife — one on River Road in Garfield and the other in Newark — that were part of a bogus sale scheme that had no real buyers, the indictment returned in Trenton alleges.
D’Anna and co-defendants Julio Concepcion, 48, of Passaic, and Stephanie Hand, a 49-year-old lawyer from Livingston, a lawyer whose law office is in Newark “used identities stolen from two residents of Puerto Rico to apply for loans for the purchases, submitting false bank statements and other false information to support the applications,” the indictment says.
The lender provided a loan of $415,865 for the Garfield property (sale price: $458,000), which the D’Annas had bought for $269,000 in 2003, and a loan of $457,655 for the Newark property (sale price $510,000), which D’Anna’s company, Metro Property Partners, LLC, bought for $92,000 in 2007, it says.
Hand was the attorney and settlement agent for both closings, according to the indictment.
It says she “filed false HUD settlement statements indicating the buyers/borrowers made required payments and the loan proceeds were properly disbursed.”
According to authorities, $74,500 in proceeds from the Garfield property and $84,400 from the Newark property were diverted to companies owned by Concepcion.
D’Anna paid off three mortgages on the properties and collected more than $100,000, the indictment alleges, adding that only a few monthly payments were made on each of the loans.
“It is particularly troubling that an attorney – a person who took an oath to uphold the law – is charged with conspiring in this type of scheme,” Acting N.J. Attorney General John J. Hoffman said. “Attorneys and licensed real estate brokers should serve as watchdogs to prevent mortgage fraud.”
Elie Honig, the director of the state Division of Criminal Justice, said that authorities “are seeing this combination of mortgage fraud and identity theft with increasing frequency, as con artists seek to take out major loans, steal the proceeds and escape under the cover of a false identity.”
The indictment charging all three with second-degree counts of conspiracy, money laundering and theft by deception was handed up in Superior Court in Mercer County and was assigned to Essex County. An arraignment date has yet to be set.
Deputy Attorneys General Jillian Carpenter and Mary Erin McAnally presented the indictment to the state grand jury, following an investigation by the Division of Criminal Justice Financial & Computer Crimes Bureau led by Detective Roxanna Ordonez, retired Lt. James MacInnes and Analysts Rita Gillis and Amy Patterson, Hoffman said.
Detective Anthony Fasolas of the Passaic County Prosecutor’s Office and the U.S. Secret Service “provided valuable assistance in the investigation,” he added.
Click here to follow Daily Voice South Passaic and receive free news updates.
