By Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon
BBC - Guardian UK - Honduras - ESPN
EDNY COURTHOUSE, Jan 4 – In Brooklyn, allegations of predatory and fraudulent lending.
On January 4 the US filed a civil complaint seeking damages and penalties against three individuals and multiple companies alleged to have engaged in a wide-ranging mortgage fraud scheme to defraud the government. The complaint, unsealed this afternoon by United States District Judge Margo K. Brodie, alleges that Iskyo Aronov, Ron Borovinsky, Michael Konstantinovskiy, and companies that they owned or controlled, engaged in fraudulent short sales of residential properties insured by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) of the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
The suit is brought pursuant to the False Claims Act (FCA) and the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act (FIRREA).
Pursuant to HUD’s Pre-Foreclosure Sale Program, qualifying homeowners with defaulted, FHA-insured mortgages may sell their properties in a “short sale” for less than the balance of the mortgage if the sale is for the fair market value of the property. If a homeowner obtains approval for a short sale, the lender releases the mortgage after the short sale and submits an FHA insurance claim to HUD to cover the outstanding mortgage balance net of the short sale proceeds, plus approved costs and interest. HUD, in turn, pays the lender’s claim from federal funds. 2 Aronov was the founder, Chief Executive Officer and President of defendants My Ideal Property Inc., My Ideal Propery Group LLC and MIP Management Inc., and also controlled other affiliated corporate entities that he allegedly established to help him fraudulently acquire residential properties. Borovinsky identified himself as a co-founder with Aronov of My Ideal Property. Konstantinovskiy worked as an agent for My Ideal Property where he allegedly conspired with others to fraudulently obtain properties.
As alleged in the complaint, from at least 2013 through 2016, the defendants defrauded HUD by manipulating the short sale process to acquire residential properties from numerous distressed homeowners for below-fair market value prices in non-arm’s-length transactions. The individual defendants used various corporate entities in furtherance of the fraudulent scheme. In the process, defendants made a host of material misrepresentations in critical transaction documents. As a result, defendants not only acquired the properties for below-fair market value prices, but obtained broker fees in the transactions and induced lenders to release the FHA- insured mortgages at a loss. In turn, HUD paid the lenders’ claims for FHA insurance from federal funds. These payments by HUD were artificially inflated as a result of the defendants’ fraudulent conduct.
Another Predatory Bender. Watch this site.
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