Four indicted on federal charges in scheme to defraud homeowners, mortgage brokers

WHITE PLAINS – A federal grand jury has indicted four men for their alleged involvement in conspiracies to commit mail and wire fraud by defrauding both homeowners in the New York metropolitan area and residential mortgage brokers across the country.

Gregory Cooper, Lawrence Burke, Riccardo White and Zachary Cutler were arrested Monday.

According to the indictment, the four, operating from an office in Cooper’s residence in Central Valley, engaged in a scheme to defraud homeowners around the New York area by misrepresenting the terms of mortgages.

They contacted homeowners and offered mortgages with low interest rates for as many as five years and attractive rate caps.

The terms of the mortgages ultimately obtained by the homeowners from the men were materially different from those they had offered.

The men also allegedly engaged in a scheme to defraud residential mortgage brokers throughout the country. They sold to the brokers’ lists of individuals’ names purportedly interested in obtaining mortgages, and promised to introduce the individual to the brokers by letter of phone call. It turns out the lists were not of people interested in mortgages.

If convicted, the men face a maximum prison term of 20 years on each count.