Real Estate Lawyer Is 2nd Attorney Convicted in Quad Cities Mortgage Fraud Case
An Iowa real estate lawyer who says he acted in good faith when he helped close nine real estate transactions for a rogue client was found guilty today in a federal mortgage fraud case in Davenport.
The transactions that got Marc Robert Engelmann, 60, convicted of bank fraud, wire fraud and conspiracy involved rental properties purchased by two individuals in the Davenport and Quad Cities area.
The two persuaded the sellers to agree to an on-paper contract price higher than the actual purchase price, then got higher mortgages based on the inflated bogus contract price, according to the Associated Press and KWQC.
At closing, the buyers, Darryl Hanneken and Robert Herdrich, pocketed the difference between the actual sales price and the mortgage amount. They are serving 40-month sentences, after allegedly borrowing over $3.7 million to buy 30 properties and pocketing $900,000. On most of the transactions, they didn’t make a single mortgage payment, KWQC reports.
Engelmann is the seventh defendant and second attorney to be convicted in the case; Paul Bieber previously pleaded guilty to misprison of a felony. Both he and Engelmann will be sentenced at a later date.
Related coverage:
ABAJournal.com: “Jury Deadlocks in Real Estate Attorney’s Mortgage Fraud Trial”
