Omission on HUD-1 Form Leads to Lawyer's Guilty Plea in Federal Mortgage Fraud Case
A Connecticut lawyer is facing possible prison time of perhaps six months after pleading guilty in federal court in Bridgeport to omitting information from a mortgage form in a real estate transaction.
John Bryk, a 61-year-old Bridgeport practitioner, knew that the terms of his clients’ mortgage for the Westport home they purchased in 2007 did not permit a second mortgage, so he omitted it from the standard so-called HUD-1 closing form developed by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, reports the Connecticut Post.
It apparently was Bryk’s bad luck that his clients, William Trudeau and his wife Heather Bliss, were the owners of the Newtown Oil Co., which came to officials’ attention after reportedly swindling customers out of some $250,000 approximately eight years ago.
Bliss and Trudeau, a real estate developer, pleaded guilty to state charges related to the oil company scam and are now under scrutiny in an alleged $3.5 million mortgage fraud involving Aspetuck Buildings and Development and Huntington South Associates, according to the article.
Real estate attorney Joseph Kriz was federally convicted in 2008 concerning an alleged mortgage fraud involving Bliss, who worked as his paralegal, and Trudeau, according to Westport Now and a 2008 press release from the U.S. Attorney’s office in Connecticut.
Related coverage:
Newtown Bee: “Trudeau Awaits Trial On Multiple Mortgage Fraud Charges”
Westport Patch: “Westport Property Developer Indicted for $3.5 Million Mortgage Fraud”
