U.S. v. O’Brien

Record contained sufficient evidence to support defendant’s convictions on mail fraud and bank fraud charges arising out of scheme to misrepresent her income and liabilities that caused lenders to issue mortgage and refinance loans related to two properties owned by defendant. Govt. could properly allege one overarching scheme that covered transactions inside and outside of relevant 10-year limitations period that involved plaintiff’s submission of false statements to bank to obtain mortgage and re-finance loans, as well as submission of documents related to plaintiff’s ultimate sale of properties to straw buyer. With respect to mail fraud charge, record showed that: (1) defendant inflated income and misrepresented liabilities on loan applications to bank, as well as used straw purchaser to purchase her properties while failing to disclose true details of sale that involved kickbacks to true purchaser; (2) said misrepresentations caused bank to make two loans to straw purchaser; (3) bank subsequently incurred loss when foreclosing on one property; and (4) defendant used mail when sending payoff check relating to purchase of one property. With respect to bank fraud charge, in addition to defendant’s submission of false statements to bank, record showed that defendant was aware that funds for loans originated from bank, due to her extensive experience in real estate industry and her intimate involvement in scheme that included transactions involving sale of defendant’s properties to straw buyer.