QUEENS REAL ESTATE APPRAISAL FIRM AND OWNER charged in a 397-count indictment

QUEENS REAL ESTATE APPRAISAL FIRM AND OWNER charged in a 397-count indictment last week with identity theft of real estate appraisers (found over the Internet) and inflating property appraisals to cheat mortgage lenders.

Queens County District Attorney Brown said that, according to the indictment, Donato Odato, as the chief executive officer of D & T National Appraisals, Inc., recruited licensed appraisers over the Internet and offered them positions with his company as part of a ruse to steal their personal identity information. Thereafter, it is alleged he would forge the names of the prospective job seekers on numerous appraisals that he filed in connection with residential mortgage applications.

The alleged scheme came to light when financial institutions began reaching out to the appraisers who allegedly had their identities stolen and advised them that their services would no longer be needed due to their inappropriate and highly inflated valuations of properties based on falsified data. The appraisers, in turn, contacted the Queens District Attorney’s Office to report the identity theft.

(It should be noted that an indictment is merely an accusation and that a defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty.

So Dear Readers we see a double-whammy:  identity theft and a real estate mortgage fraud scheme

For more about this scam, go to: http://www.mortgagefraudblog.com