Livingston Lawyer Gets 8 Years In Jail For Mortgage Scheme

LIVINGSTON, NJ — A lawyer from Essex County was sentenced to state prison on Friday for conspiring with others to steal $873,520 from a lender by using stolen identities to file fraudulent mortgage loan applications for two bogus real estate transactions, falsifying settlement statements and diverting loan proceeds, prosecutors said.

Stephanie Hand, 52, of Livingston, was sentenced to eight years in state prison by a Superior Court in Newark, the Attorney General’s Office of New Jersey announced Friday.

Hand was found guilty in a jury trial in March 2017 of second-degree charges of conspiracy, money laundering and theft by deception. The charges were contained in a Feb. 6, 2014 superseding indictment stemming from an investigation by the Division of Criminal Justice, with assistance from the Passaic County Prosecutor’s Office and U.S. Secret Service.

“The immediate victim in this case was a lender, but mortgage fraud ultimately raises the cost of mortgage loans for all of us,” said Director Elie Honig of the Division of Criminal Justice.

Prosecutors said that the state presented testimony and evidence at trial that Hand conspired with others, including Thomas D’Anna, 41, of Saddle Brook, in two fraudulent real estate sales between January 2009 and April 2009.

The sales involved properties at 248 River Road in Garfield and 91 Isabella Avenue in Newark, prosecutors said.

In both sales, D’Anna, or a company he owned, sold the property, while no actual buyer existed. The defendants used identities stolen from residents of Puerto Rico to apply for loans for the purchases, submitting false bank statements and other false information to support the applications. The lender provided loans of $415,865 for the Garfield property, and $457,655 for the Newark property, prosecutors said.

Hand was the attorney and settlement agent for both closings, prosecutors stated.

According to prosecutors:

“Hand filed false HUD settlement statements for each closing indicating the buyers/borrowers made required payments and the loan proceeds were properly disbursed. In reality, prior mortgages on the properties were paid off, but the remaining proceeds from the sales were divided among D’Anna, Hand, and a third defendant, Julio Concepcion, 52, of Passaic. The properties were sold at inflated prices that far exceeded what D’Anna paid for them. Only a few monthly payments were made on each of the new mortgage loans.”

D’Anna pleaded guilty in January 2017 to a charge of second-degree conspiracy. Concepcion pleaded guilty in October 2015 to first- and second-degree conspiracy charges. Both are awaiting sentencing.

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