CAMDEN – A brother and sister and one other person were sentenced June 2 for their respective roles in conspiring to defraud financial institutions as part of a $15-million mortgage fraud scam that used phony documents and “straw buyers” to make illegal profits on overbuilt condos, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced. Some of those units were in Wildwood Crest and North Wildwood, according to a release.
Nancy Wolf-Fels, 58, of Toms River was sentenced to 42 months in prison; Dwayne Onque, 47, of Belleville was sentenced to 63 months in prison; and Mashon Onque, 44, of East Orange was sentenced to 30 months in prison.
All three were convicted in a four-week trial in October 2014 before U.S. District Judge Jerome B. Simandle, who imposed the sentences in Camden federal court.
The defendants were each convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Dwayne Onque was also convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering.
According to documents filed in this case and the evidence at trial:
Defendants and their conspirators schemed to defraud financial institutions by locating oceanfront condominiums overbuilt by financially distressed developers and negotiating a buyout price with the sellers.
They then caused the sales prices for the properties, in Wildwood Crest and North Wildwood, other locations in New Jersey and in Naples, Fla., to be much higher than the buyout price to ensure large proceeds. Other defendants helped conceal the true sales prices of certain properties through inflated sales contracts and finder’s fee agreements.
From 2007 through mid-2008, Wolf-Fels served as a loan officer at the Forked River branch of the mortgage company, Mortgage Now. She and her conspirators originated six loan applications for unqualified buyers that contained false and fraudulent information.
Working with her conspirators, including one who manufactured fake bank statements, retirement account statements and pay stubs to support the false loan applications, Wolf-Fels assembled the loan applications and sent them to victim financial institutions, which lent unqualified buyers mortgage funds.
From late 2006 through mid-2007, Dwayne Onque served as a “straw buyer” of five properties in Middletown and Wildwood. For each of the five properties, he signed false and fraudulent loan applications and closing documents that resulted in the release of more than $2 million of mortgage funds.
During 2006 and 2008, Mashon Onque served as a title agent at Tri-State Title Agency in Montclair. She acted as the closing agent for fraudulent mortgage loans orchestrated by her conspirators, including her brother, Dwayne Onque.
The conspirators put together buyers and sellers in real estate transactions, and then filed false and fraudulent loan applications containing inflated income figures for the borrowers. After the mortgage lenders approved the loans, Mashon Onque prepared and signed fraudulent settlement statements that falsely claimed that the borrowers had made down payments to close the loans.
In addition to the prison terms, Simandle sentenced each of the three defendants to three years of supervised release. Restitution will be determined at a hearing on July 9.
Fishman credited special agents of the FBI’s Newark Division, Atlantic City Resident Agency, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Richard M. Frankel, and special agents of IRS-Criminal Investigation, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Jonathan D. Larsen, with the investigation leading to the convictions.
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