Ex-Mortgage Lender Principals are Charged in Fraud

NEW YORK -- Two former principals at a Brooklyn mortgage lender have been charged with fraud in two separate schemes to steal more than $44 million in payoff proceeds from refinanced mortgages and to sell nonperforming mortgage loans using falsified loan histories, Newsday reported Thursday.

Leib Pinter and Barry Goldstein, former principals of Olympia Mortgage Corp., have been indicted on charges of conspiracy and fraud charges, the paper reported.

The men are expected to be arraigned before a federal judge in Brooklyn late Thursday. They each face a maximum of 30 years in prison on the fraud charges, the paper reported.

The two schemes allegedly ran from 1994 until November 2004 -- when Olympia surrendered its license to act as a mortgage lender in New York, according to the indictment, the paper reported.

-- NYSSCPA.org News Staff

Posted on 5/8/08