by Calculated Risk on 4/23/2012 07:53:00 PM

These people didn't think they'd get caught? And how did they earn $350,000 in fees on $8 million in loans? That sure seems excessive.

From Eric Wolff at the North County Times: Carlsbad mother and Orange County son convicted in $8 million mortgage fraud

A jury convicted a Carlsbad mother and her Orange County son of an $8 million mortgage fraud scheme, the U.S. Attorney for Southern California said Wednesday.

Stephen Chrysler, an Orange County attorney and loan broker, and his mother, Aida Agusti Castro, a Carlsbad real estate agent living in Cardiff, inflated clients incomes on loan mortgages to buy 16 properties in Escondido, Oceanside, San Marcos, Lakeside and Menifee over 25 months from 2005 to 2007 to create false loans, which in turn netted the pair $350,000 in fees.
...
Castro and Chrysler located their clients through advertising in Spanish-language publications. They then inflated their clients' incomes so the clients could purchase more expensive houses, which in turn inflated Castro and Chrysler's fees. In order to persuade lenders, the pair had to fake businesses, management companies, tenants and rental histories.
...
The pair then told clients to sign the loan documents without reading them, and they often refused to translate the documents from English to Spanish.

Now they will get free rent at the Big House.