UPDATE: Real-estate agent, high-ranked fighter sentenced in mortgage fraud case

A Portland-area mixed martial-arts fighter and one-time aspirant to the Oregon House of Representatives was sentenced Friday to two years’ probation for money laundering in connection with a Vancouver mortgage company called Lighthouse Financial Group.

Chael Sonnen, 33, of West Linn, Ore., also received a $10,000 fine and forfeited his Oregon real estate license, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Oregon.

Sonnen is well-known in the world of sports as a high-ranked fighter in mixed martial-arts bouts, according to stories on http://sports.espn.go.com. Last year, he made a bid for a seat in Oregon’s House of Representatives but dropped out in June, saying a “2006 legal issue” needed his attention.

The bulletin said Sonnen acted as the real estate agent in a transaction involving a home in Portland, and submitted a false letter and sales agreement instructing the title company to disburse $69,000 to a contractor for plumbing repairs. However, in a deal arranged by Lighthouse Financial Group employees, $65,000 of the money was actually kicked back to the buyer, the bulletin said.

Lighthouse was a name used in Vancouver by Crown Point Enterprises, the bulletin said.

Several other people were involved in the alleged crimes, the bulletin said.

One of five former employees of Lighthouse pleaded guilty in January to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud for his role in a federal mortgage fraud scheme that resulted in at least $3.5 million in losses.

Joel Rosabal, 31, entered a guilty plea to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Portland. He faces up to 30 years in prison, a $1 million fine and up to five years of supervised release.

He is scheduled to be sentenced Monday.

Rosabal appeared May 19 alongside four others — Chadwick Amsden, 31; Timothy Hills, 30; Misti Wallis, aka Misti Cowart, 32; and Gerald Wallis, 41 — on charges relating to their work for Crown Point and Lighthouse, from early 2006 through mid-2007.

A sixth employee, Jo Schermerhorn, 50, was indicted in June.

The resolution of the other cases is still pending.

As for Sonnen, his transaction with the group followed the script used in the alleged Lighthouse scheme.

U.S. Attorney Dwight Holton accused the employees of defrauding lenders by recruiting homebuyers to apply for loans at an inflated price and then pocketing a portion of that money, according to the indictment. The charges are the result of an investigation by the Internal Revenue Service and the United States Postal Inspection Service.