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Sung Ho Mo, 53, owned and operated “Douglas Mo Mortgage” -- a mortgage brokerage business with offices also in Englewood and Englewood Cliffs -- which federal authorities said was a decade-long conspiracy to fraudulently obtain home equity lines of credit and first mortgages.
"As part of the scheme, Mo fraudulently obtained multiple home equity lines of credit from multiple banks, using his primary and secondary residences in Totowa as collateral for the loans," U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman said.
"To trick the banks into issuing the lines of credit, Mo first engaged in a practice that he described as 'shotgun loans,' in which he applied for several home equity lines of credit with multiple banks at the same time," Fishman said.
By doing so, he said, Mo "thwarted the banks’ efforts to learn of security interests held by other banks on his homes."
Mo also falsely inflated his income by paying a tax preparer to produce false documents -- including bogus W-2 forms, federal income tax returns and paystubs -- that he submitted to the banks in support of loan applications, the U.S. attorney said.
"After receiving home equity lines of credit, Mo used the proceeds for his own benefit and then defaulted on the loans," he said. "[He] obtained first mortgages for his clients using the same fraudulent scheme."
U.S. District Judge Katharine S. Hayden scheduled sentencing for June 1.
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