A St.Cloud, Florida-based loan officer has been found guilty of fabricating documents and forging signatures of government officials to qualify borrowers for conventional and Federal Housing Administration (FHA) mortgage loans.
Omayra Ujaque was convicted by a federal jury in Florida on three counts of bank fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft Wednesday, per an announcement by the Department of Justice.
The loan officer, whose place of employment was not disclosed, faces up to 30 years imprisonment for each bank fraud count and must serve a mandatory two year sentence for aggravated identity theft. Her sentencing hearing is scheduled for July 5.
In February, the DOJ published an indictment alleging that Ujaque fabricated or inflated monthly child support payments on loan applications to ensure unqualified borrowers were approved for mortgages. The majority of these borrowers did not have children.
In relation to that charge, the government alleged that the LO created final orders supposedly modifying those support payments in order to beef up their income, as well as producing fake final judgments of dissolution of marriage.
Said documents were signed using the names of judges from the Circuit Court of the Ninth District of Florida.
After doing so, Ujaque allegedly submitted this paperwork to her place of work to support the false monthly income on loan applications. Her undisclosed place of work approved and funded the mortgage loans.
It is unclear how many FHA or conventional loans were originated based on this concocted information. The Department of Housing and Urban Development Office of Inspector General and the Federal Housing Finance Agency Office of Inspector General did not respond to requests for comment.
A similar indictment was issued by the DOJ in May 2022 where a loan officer based in Kissimmee, Florida — a 20 minute drive from St. Cloud — was accused of concocting the same exact scheme. However, the case seems to be still pending, with no ruling made as of April 2023.
Evelisse Hernandez was charged last year with four counts of bank fraud and four counts of aggravated identity theft for falsifying a borrower's income by including fabricated monthly child support payments on mortgage loan applications and forging signatures of the same judges from the Circuit Court of the Ninth District of Florida.
Hernandez faces up to 30 years in prison if convicted and may have to pay $130,000 in restitution.
