David Taber
J. Daniel Lindley, a 59-year-old attorney living at 120 Bynner St., and nine others were found guilty in Federal District Court June 2 on multiple counts related to a mortgage fraud conspiracy.
Lindley and convicted co-defendant Eric Levine, a 57-year-old Brookline lawyer whose license had previously been suspended after he solicited money from a client he was representing as a public defender, “participated in the loan closing process and handled the money,” according to a US Department of Justice press release.
They face decades in prison and millions of dollars in fines for convictions on wire fraud, money laundering and conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
At least three of the 21 Greater Boston properties on which the conspirators took out fraudulent mortgages are in Jamaica Plain. The JP properties are at 3231 Washington St. and 22 Estrella St., apartments 1 and 2.
A US Department of Justice (DOJ) press release said all of the fraudulent mortgages were allowed to go into default and some of the properties were foreclosed on. None of the three JP properties are currently bank-owned, Suffolk County Registry of Deeds records indicate.
Between May 2005 and June 2006, Lindley, nine co-defendants and one other alleged conspirator “participated in a conspiracy to obtain $10.6 million in mortgage loan proceeds by fraud,” the DOJ press release said. They netted about $1.7 million from the fraud.
The conspiracy involved signing properties over to fake—or “straw”—owners who then lied on mortgage loan applications about their incomes, credit histories and where they lived among other things, the press release said.
Other co-conspirators identified properties, negotiated sales, acted as straw borrowers and committed identity theft, among other things, the press release said.
Sentencing hearings for all the defendants will be held throughout September.
One alleged conspirator, Ralph Appolon, is due to stand trial in February 2011.