A Woodland woman was one of two people who pleaded guilty in federal court Monday to conspiring to commit wire fraud in connection with a mortgage fraud scheme, United States Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner announced.
Sandra Hermosillo, 53, of Woodland, and 46-year-old Moctezuma Tovar of Sacramento both face up to 30 years in prison and a $1 million fine at their Dec. 7 sentencing before Senior United States District Judge William B. Shubb.
According to court documents, Tovar was the founder and president of Delta Homes and Lending Inc., a Sacramento-based real estate and mortgage lending company. Delta Homes opened one office in 2003 and eventually had five offices in Sacramento and Woodland. As the president of Delta Homes, Tovar managed the day-to-day operations of the company and prepared and submitted residential home loan applications on behalf of Delta Homes’ clients.
Hermosillo was a loan officer at the Woodland office and also was responsible for submitting residential home loan applications on clients’ behalf.
FBI agents who investigated the case say that between October 2004 and May 2007, both Tovar and Hermosillo conspired with others to obtain home loans from mortgage lenders based upon false and fraudulent loan applications and supporting documents that falsely represented the borrowers’ assets and income, liabilities and debts, and employment status — including providing money to the borrowers in order to inflate their bank account balances.
Once the loans were secured, the borrowers returned the money to the defendants. The aggregate sales price of the homes involved in the conspiracy was in excess of $10 million. As a result of the conspiracy, mortgage lenders and others suffered losses of at least $4 million, authorities said.
Also scheduled for sentencing on Dec. 7 are co-defendants Manuel Herrera, 35, of Sacramento; and Jun Michael Dirain, 42, of Antelope; who previously pleaded guilty in this case. Three others — Woodland resident Christian Parada Renteria, 39, a former loan officer; and Sacramento residents Jaime Mayorga, 36; and Ruben Rodriguez, 38; both licensed real-estate agents — have a trial date of Sept. 22.