Kelsey Torrey Hull and Jonathan Alfred Kimpson faked everything to scam senior citizens trying to get reverse mortgage loans, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.
They faked property listings and inflated housing appraisals. They falsified loan documents, including “gift letters” for amounts between $50,000 and $105,000 to qualify for down payments.
All of it allowed them to profit from a reverse mortgage program designed to help people 62 or older buy or stay in a home.
Hull, 38, and Kimpson, 27, pleaded guilty in federal court Thursday to conspiracy to defraud reverse mortgage lenders as well as the Federal Housing Administration.
The two Lithonia men would draft false “gift letters” and other documents seniors needed to qualify for the FHA-backed mortgages – and create documents that gave an inflated price of a home.
Hull and Kimpson would then make the down payment for the home, only to get the money back – plus profits -- during the reverse loan closing.
The money was disguised as either proceeds from the seller or as lien payoffs.
“These defendants plead to profiting from the corruption of a FHA-insured program designed to assist seniors with either cash for equity in their home or with funds toward the purchase of a home,” United States Attorney Sally Quillian Yates said.
Besides the conspiracy charges, Kimpson also pleaded guilty to aggravated identity theft after stealing the identities of real estate agents and using that information to create false property listings at inflated amounts.
Hull pleaded guilty to another bank fraud charge after transferring properties into the names of senior citizens so he could obtain reverse mortgages at higher amounts.
These reverse mortgages, called refi-reverse mortgages, allow senior citizens to revenue money from the bank for a portion of the equity in the home that they own.
In Hull’s case, he was able to avoid making a down payment and divert the loan proceeds to himself.
The men are scheduled to be sentenced on July 16.
Kimpson could receive the maximum sentence of 30 years in prison and a fine of up to $1 million on the conspiracy charge.
He also could get a mandatory consecutive sentence of two years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000 on the aggravated identity theft charge.
Hull could receive a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison and a fine of up to $1 million on each of the conspiracy and bank fraud counts.
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