Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Former Las Vegas man gets house arrest in mortgage scheme

A federal judge sentenced a former Las Vegas resident Thursday to six months of house arrest for recruiting individuals to submit false mortgage loan applications to a federally insured bank from 2003 to 2005, Nevada's U.S. Attorney Daniel Bogden said today.

Joseph Manfredonia, 43, of East Rutherford, N.J., was also ordered by U.S. District Judge Philip Pro to pay slightly more than $1 million in restitution and forfeiture penalties and will be barred from employment in the mortgage and real estate industries.

Manfredonia pleaded guilty Sept. 13 to conspiracy to commit bank fraud, mail fraud and wire fraud. He was indicted in June 2008 along with co-defendant Kevin Wright, who also pleaded guilty to the same charge and was sentenced Nov. 15 to 21 month in prison.

From about 2003 through December 2004, Manfredonia entered into a conspiracy to recruit straw buyers with good credit to buy houses in Las Vegas. He caused false information regarding employment, income, assets and payment history to be included on the straw buyers' loan applications for first and second mortgages so the straw buyers would qualify for loans for which they would not otherwise qualify.

Manfredonia caused the loan applications to be forwarded to the financial institutions for the funding of first and second mortgages. The second mortgages were funded by Wells Fargo Bank. Manfredonia caused the funds from the second mortgages to be diverted by wire transfer to his bank account and Wright's bank account for their own use. From about August 2003 to October 2005, Manfredonia and Wright caused six second mortgages to be funded by Wells Fargo Bank, costing the bank $2.4 million.

The case was investigated by the FBI and IRS Criminal Investigation and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian Pugh.

Join the Discussion:

Check this out for a full explanation of our conversion to the LiveFyre commenting system and instructions on how to sign up for an account.

Full comments policy