Reverse Mortgage Loan Blog

Three metro Atlantans have been indicted for allegedly running a reverse mortgage fraud ring.

Jonathan Alfred Kimpson, 27, of Lithonia and Gia Harris, 26, of Atlanta were indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of conspiracy to commit financial institution fraud involving so-called “reverse” mortgages. Kimpson was also charged with aggravated identity theft and wire fraud.

Kelsey Torrey Hull, 38, of Lithonia was charged on Feb. 25 in a criminal information related to the same scheme, on a charge of financial institution fraud and conspiracy.

Kimpson and Harris were indicted separately on Feb. 24, 2010, and Hull was charged the next day. The indictments and information were unsealed upon the arrest of Kimpson and Harris when they appeared before United States Magistrate Judge Linda T. Walker Wednesday and entered not guilty pleas to the charges.

Reverse mortgages are designed to assist with the financial security of seniors, ages 62 or older. There are two types of reverse mortgages. In a refi-reverse, the senior homeowner receives money from the lender for a portion of their equity in the home they own. In a purchase money reverse, the senior homeowner gets money from the lender toward the purchase of a new home.

Under both types of reverse mortgages, the senior does not have to repay the lender for as long as the senior lives in the home. However, refi-reverse mortgages fund only a percentage of the property value, requiring significant equity to remain in the property, and purchase money reverse mortgages require a significant down payment from senior borrowers, to establish equity in the property.

The indictment alleges Kimpson, Harris and Hull, in an attempt to take advantage of the system, faked the required down payments by the senior citizen to establish the equity needed in the home to qualify for the FHA-insured reverse mortgages. The defendants did this through bogus “gift” letters in amounts between $50,000 and $105,000. They used fake “HUD-1″ Settlement Statements reflecting the sale of non-existent assets closed by fictitious law firms to show the source of the required down payments.

All down payments were actually supplied by the defendants, not the senior citizens, to be returned to the defendants upon the reverse loan closings, along with profits far in excess of the true sales prices of the properties. The return of such payments to the defendants was disguised as seller proceeds or lien payoffs. All such reverse mortgages included fraudulently inflated appraisals.

Kimpson’s charge of aggravated identity theft and wire fraud relates to a scheme to use stolen identities of Realtors. Kimpson allegedly used Realtor passwords obtained in his and relatives’ names, and in the stolen identities of other Realtors. With that information, he allegedly falsified Georgia MLS records to create fake property sales at inflated amounts to support many of the properties’ fraudulent appraisals.

The Kimpson indictment charges a conspiracy count which carries a maximum sentence of up to 30 years in prison and a fine of up to $1 million, a wire fraud count with a maximum sentence of up to 30 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000, and three aggravated identity theft counts which each carry a maximum sentence of up to two years in prison and a fine of $250,000 with at least two years required to be imposed consecutive to the sentence on the other counts.

The Harris indictment charges a conspiracy count which carries a maximum sentence of up to 30 years in prison and a fine of up to $1 million.

The Hull criminal information charges a bank fraud count which carries a maximum sentence of up to 30 years in prison and a fine of up to $1 million, and a conspiracy count which carries a maximum sentence of up to 30 years in prison and a fine of up to $1 million.

Found here.