It appears that the family that commits mortgage fraud together goes to jail together, too.
Three members of a California family who ran a foreclosure company will spend more than 45 years in jail, collectively, after each was found guilty of participating in a $20 million mortgage fraud scheme that preyed on financially distressed homeowners.
According to the Department of Justice, Dorothy Matsuba, her husband, Thomas Matsuba, and her daughter, Jamie Matsuba, each received a sentence of more than 10 years in jail for taking part in the nearly decade-long scheme.
Court documents showed that from January 2005 through August 2014, Dorothy Matsuba, Jamie Matsuba, Thomas Matsuba, other members of Dorothy Matsuba’s family, and others participated in a scheme that defrauded financially distressed homeowners by offering foreclosure prevention via short sales.
But instead of executing the short sales as promised, the Matsubas and others rented out the properties to other people, did not pay the mortgages on the subject properties, and submitted fake and falsified documents to mortgage lenders and servicers to delay the pending foreclosures.
Evidence presented at trial further showed that the Matsubas ran an “interlocking web” of companies, primarily under the names of Ownership Management Service and Trust Holding Service.
