Carmichael Man Indicted for Mortgage Fraud

A Carmichael man was among three people indicted by a federal grand jury last week in a mortgage fraud conspiracy, the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s Eastern California District announced.

The grand jury returned an 11-count indictment on Thursday against Sean McClendon, 45, of West Sacramento; Anthony Salcedo, 30, of El Dorado Hills; and Anthony Williams, 44, of Carmichael, who is also charged with two counts of identity theft.

McClendon and Williams bought four residential properties from Salcedo or his associates using straw buyers between December 2005 and September 2006, the indictment asserts. The properties were in Rocklin, Folsom, Sacramento and El Dorado Hills.

According to a news release from the Eastern District, Salcedo paid McClendon and Williams a kickback for finding buyers. McClendon was a loan officer and facilitated the loans for each of the properties and in each instance, the buyer’s income and assets were falsified in order to qualify for the loans. Generally, the true purchase price of the homes was overstated on the loan documents and payments to the straw buyers and the kickbacks were not disclosed to the lenders as part of the purchase or sales agreements.

For two of the properties, the buyer of record was a resident of Milwaukee, Wis., who was unaware that her personal information was being used to purchase homes in the Sacramento area, the news release states. Williams is charged with two counts of identity theft in relation to these transactions.

All properties involved were foreclosed by the lenders, resulting in losses of more than $1 million, according to the indictment.

This case is the product of an investigation by the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Assistant United States Attorney Jean Hobler is prosecuting the case.

If convicted, the defendants face a maximum statutory penalty for mail fraud and the related conspiracy of 30 years in prison, a $1 million fine, or both. The penalty for identity theft is two years in prison served concurrent to any sentence for the related mail fraud charges. The actual sentence for each defendant, however, will be determined at the discretion of the court, the release states.