Real Estate Attorney Gets 5 Years in $23M Mortgage Fraud Case
A New York real estate lawyer who allegedly participated in a $23 million mortgage fraud by acting as an attorney for the bank and/or straw buyers involved in the scheme has been sentenced to five years in federal prison.
Cheddi Goberdhan, 57, “created and sent false documents to the banks, received the loan money into his attorney account and siphoned off huge amounts of that money for himself and his co-conspirators,” states a press release (PDF) by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Manhattan. “He also structured highly lucrative ‘flip’ sales in which he arranged for properties to be bought and sold in a sham sale the same day at a far higher price, stealing the difference.
“Furthermore, in order to fool the banks into thinking the properties were on firm financial footing in the first few months after closing, Goberdhan secretly wrote checks from the mortgage proceeds to a co-conspirator so she could make several months of mortgage payments on the homes before letting them fall into foreclosure,” the release continues. “Meanwhile, many of the straw buyers ‘represented’ by Goberdhan were not even aware that he was supposed to be their attorney in these transactions.”
In addition to serving prison time, he will also be required to pay nearly $5 million in restitution.
The scheme allegedly centered on GuyAmerican Funding in Jamaica, New York. Five other lawyers also were accused in the overall Operation Bad Deeds prosecution.
At last report, Sharon Friday Cudjoe, Dustin Dente, Brandon Lisi, and Dean Reskakis were still facing charges. Ravi Persaud was convicted at trial and sentenced to time served, the release says.
Additional and related coverage:
ABAJournal.com: “6 Lawyers Among 41 Charged in $64M Mortgage Fraud Case”
ABAJournal.com: “Another NY Lawyer Goes Down in $23M Mortgage Fraud Case”
ABAJournal.com: “NY Lawyers & Dominatrix Accused of Running $50M Mortgage Fraud Scheme”