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2008-10-02  BUSINESS | Alpharetta, Roswell, Duluth properties part of fraud
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October 10, 2008
A former Woodstock real estate agent received a 14-year federal prison sentence and was ordered to pay $11.2 million in restitution in a mortgage fraud case.
Joseph Sterling Jetton, 61, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Beverly B. Martin on charges of conspiracy, bank fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering related to a multi-million dollar mortgage fraud scheme.
Jetton received the sentence imposed as a result of his conviction by a jury on Nov. 26, 2007, after a three-week trial.
U.S. Attorney David E. Nahmias said the defendant used his specialized knowledge of real estate and residential mortgage financing to orchestrate a mortgage fraud scheme that has caused millions of dollars in losses to lenders and untold damage to neighborhoods.
"Nearly a dozen people have been sentenced to federal prison for their involvement in this defendant's scheme. The long prison sentence handed down today accounts for his leadership role in the scheme and the misuse of his position as a real estate agent to commit the fraud," Nahmias said.
According to Nahmias and the information presented in court: From late 2004 through early 2006, Jetton orchestrated a mortgage fraud scheme that involved millions of dollars in fraudulently inflated mortgage loans being provided to unqualified straw borrowers. The straw borrowers were paid through shell companies, as much as $600,000 per property from the fraudulently obtained loan proceeds. Jetton wrote sales contracts that failed to disclose that the sales prices of the residences had been inflated and that hundreds of thousands of dollars out of the loan proceeds were going to the buyers and others. Jetton personally derived more than a $1 million in commissions from the mortgage fraud scheme.
Eleven other defendants have already been sentenced to prison terms in related cases, with sentences ranging from 8 months to more than 10 years in federal prison. A closing attorney in the scheme, Raymond Joseph Costanzo Jr., 63, of Clayton, was sentenced to 3 years, 5 months in federal prison, and a loan broker in the scheme, Olympia D. Ammons, 31, of St. Louis, Mo., was sentenced to 5 years, 3 months in prison to be followed by 4 years of supervised release, and ordered to pay $7,549,044 in restitution.
This case was investigated by Special Agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Gale McKenzie, William L. McKinnon Jr. and Douglas Gilfillan prosecuted the case.
- www.northfulton.com
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