One of five former employees of a Vancouver mortgage company who were charged last year has pleaded guilty in connection with 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 30 years in prison, a $1 million fine and up to five years of supervised release.
Rosabal agreed to pay full restitution as part of the plea agreement, court records show. He is scheduled to be sentenced April 11.
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 Enterprises, which was doing business as Lighthouse Financial Group 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.
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.
Lenders that sustained losses include First Franklin Corp., Decision One Mortgage, Hyperion Capital, Millennium Funding and Ace Mortgage,.
Lighthouse Financial Group and its president, Sheldon Harmon, were banned from doing business in Oregon in July 2009. The company listed its headquarters at 4001 Main St. in Vancouver. At the time, the Oregon Division of Finance and Corporate Securities said that Lighthouse violated the state’s mortgage lender law by opening unlicensed branches, failing to notify the state of new hires, hiring brokers with criminal records or unlicensed brokers, keeping shoddy client records and providing fraudulent information on mortgage applications.
Rosabal and Amsden were initially charged in a 21-count indictment including conspiracy, mail fraud, wire fraud and money laundering. They allegedly recruited potential borrowers to Lighthouse and lied on their loan documents to secure funding in exchange for a kickback.
Amsden, Hills, Cowart, Wallis and Schermerhorn were charged in a separate four-count indictment alleging, among other things, conspiracy, wire fraud, money laundering and false statements to banks.
A Portland realtor pleaded guilty earlier this month to money laundering in connection with the case. Chael Sonnen, 33, of West Linn, Ore., faces up to 20 years in prison and a $500,000 fine.
