NJ man gets 24 months in prison for real estate scam

Real Estate

By Mary K. Jacob

In a surprising case of real estate fraud, a Hudson County, New Jersey, wheeler-dealer has been handed a hefty 24-month sentence for his part in a home equity line of credit (HELOC) scam, which ended up costing victims $400,000.

Anthony Garvin, a 53-year-old Jersey City resident, recently copped a guilty plea to one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud and four counts of bank fraud — all via video conference before US District Judge Katharine S. Hayden.

The curtains closed on Garvin’s dealings at the Newark federal court, where he faced charges for his scheme that unfolded between 2011 and 2014, according to a press release from the US Department of Justice.

Garvin and a team swindled multiple HELOCs on his own properties.

To hoodwink the lenders, Garvin and his gang submitted applications laden with lies and fabricated evidence.

This rogue’s gallery included counterfeit pay stubs, W-2 forms that were more fiction than fact, phony tax returns and fake bank statements. They even forged property deeds.

But it didn’t stop there. Garvin also cut slices of the pie for his co-conspirators, ultimately letting all the loans crash and burn.

Judge Hayden also handed down a three-year stint of supervised release to keep tabs on Garvin. As for his partners in crime, two of them have already confessed to the charges.

But the plot thickens.

Just last week, another New Jersey man emerged from the shadows in the form of Cabral Simpson, a 46-year-old resident of Orange.

Simpson ‘fessed up to working with his co-conspirators in a scheme that involved cooking up fake bank statements and bogus employee records to dupe potential property buyers. They even went so far as to wire funds into the buyers’ bank accounts as fake deposits for property deals.

Simpson and his group also submitted fraudulent mortgage loan applications, complete with counterfeit documents and falsified closing paperwork, all in an ploy to con lenders into shelling out over a cool million bucks in loans.

The loans went up in smoke, leaving lenders and the US Department of Housing and Urban Development with a bill exceeding seven figures.

Conspiracy to commit wire fraud carries a maximum penalty of 20 years behind bars and a heavy fine.