The United States Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey says that a Verona resident is among nine people involved in a mortgage fraud scheme that caused losses of approximately $10 million.
U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced that Jose Luis Salguero Bedoya, also known as Jose Salguero, 36, of Elizabeth and Verona, was among those charged with conspiracy to commit bank fraud. There is no listed address for Salguero in public databases for Verona.
Fishman also said that Paul Chemidlin, Jr., 41, of Morganville, N.J.; Delio Coutinho, 50, of Colonia, N.J.; Joseph DiValli, 44, of Jackson, N.J.; Christopher Ju, 26, of East Brunswick, N.J.; Carmine Fusco, 44, of East Hanover, N.J.; Jose Martins, 31, of Newark, N.J.; Yazmin Soto-Cruz, also known as Yazmin Soto, 32, of Elizabeth, N.J.; and Kenneth Sweetman, 32, of Lyndhurst and Nutley, N.J., were arrested by FBI special agents.
According to the complaints, the defendants engaged in multiple mortgage fraud conspiracies targeting at least 15 properties in and around Newark and Elizabeth from March 2008 to July 2012. The mortgage frauds are alleged to have taken several forms, including obtaining control of properties through fraudulent “short sale” transactions, short sale flips, and identity theft. The U.S. Attorney’s Office says the defendants submitted materially false mortgage loan documents to lenders in order to obtain loan proceeds, which the defendants then used for their own financial gain. The defendants also obtained money through various sales to straw buyers.
Salguero, Chemidlin, Coutinho, DiValli, Ju, Fusco, Martins, Soto, and Sweetman, are scheduled for initial appearances and bail hearings on Friday afternoon before U.S. Magistrate Judge Joseph A. Dickson in Newark.
