Today in the Eastern District a jury acquitted four defendants on multiple mortgage fraud related charges. While all defense victories are awesome this is a truly stellar victory. The Eastern District has indicted an extraordinary number of mortgage fraud cases, indicting average people while the banks and bankers who made millions off the mortgages have walked away. This is one of the first cases of its kind to go to trial in this district.
In United States v. Charikov et al, the government alleged 4 individuals obtained properties and mortgages at inflated prices by overstating their incomes. The government alleged the four defendants profited while the mortgage companies lost hundreds of thousands of dollars. The defense argued that what was written on the mortgage applications was essentially meaningless because the mortgage company’s didn’t care – they weren’t checking loan documents and therefore what was written on the loan applications was not material to the mortgage company’s decisions to fund the loans.
This case is important because it is one of the first to go to trial in this district. Judge Karlton allowed the defense to argue that the statements on the loan documents weren’t material which was significant to the defense victory in this case.
Check out the Sacramento Bee article here:
http://www.sacbee.com/2014/08/22/6648529/sacramento-federal-court-jury.html
