In Rochester, NY, several mortgage brokers and builders have either pled guilty or will go to trial for illegally obtaining mortgages. Here is some of the news from today's local paper: Eighth Amico figure pleads guilty Mortgage broker Allan Peters, 48, of Greece, pleaded guilty Thursday to three counts of mail fraud, bank fraud and tax evasion in connection with an alleged scheme to defraud banks of more than $58.5 million for houses built by former Penfield builder Robert A. Amico and his sons. Peters is the eighth person to plead guilty in the case, which officials say is one of the biggest mortgage fraud cases in western New York. That leaves Amico and two of his sons as the last figures to face charges in the case, which is scheduled for trial in March. When the judge asked Peters why he committed the crimes, Peters hung his head, shrugged his shoulders and said, ``It was for the money.'' Peters is expected to receive no more than 33 months in prison when sentenced Aug. 27. FULL STORY IN THE MORNING You can access this by going to www.democratandchronicle.com and clicking on news. Just a heads up.
(Friday, November 30, 2001) -- Greece mortgage broker Allan Peters pleaded guilty yesterday in U.S. District Court to charges that he and others schemed to defraud banks of $58.5 million in connection with the sale of houses built by former Penfield builder Robert A. Amico and his sons. Peters, 49, manager of MFC Mortgage Corp., became the eighth defendant to plead guilty in the case, described by federal officials as one of the biggest fraud cases ever uncovered in western New York. His guilty plea means that only Robert A. Amico and his sons, Robert J. Amico and Richard N. Amico, are now slated to stand trial in March. Since December 2000, when the charges were first brought against the Amicos and their associates, defendants one by one pleaded guilty to charges ranging from bank fraud and tax evasion to falsifying rec-ords and mortgage fraud. The case -- involving more than 170 houses built by the Amicos between 1995 and last year -- required years to unravel "just because of the sheer volume of documents, the enormity of the conspiracy, and the number of people involved," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Resnick. When U.S. District Judge Charles Siragusa asked Peters why, as "an intelligent person," he got involved in the elaborate scheme to defraud lenders by inflating the value of Amico houses, Peters hung his head, shrugged his shoulders and said, "I did it for the money." Peters could be ordered to spend as long as 38 years in prison and fined $1 million when he is sentenced in August, but he is expected to be sentenced to a maximum of 33 months behind bars, Resnick said. Peters' guilty plea came about a month after a new indictment was issued in the case, charging that he and another mortgage broker, Debra Gilliatt, of Walworth, Wayne County, committed tax fraud by failing to report income derived from their roles in obtaining mortgages for Amico houses. Gilliatt pleaded guilty last week to charges of mail fraud and tax evasion. In court yesterday, Peters admitted charges of mortgage fraud, tax fraud and mail fraud. In connection with the bank fraud charge, Peters admitted falsifying college grant applications that qualified two of his children to receive more than $30,000 worth of federal, state and school grants while attending St. Bonaventure University near Olean, Curry College in Massachusetts and Franklin Pierce College in New Hampshire, Resnick said. Resnick said the college fraud was uncovered by special agents from the criminal investigation division of the Internal Revenue Service who found that Peters failed to pay more than $120,000 in taxes on income from the sales of Amico properties. Peters' lawyer, Michael Wolford, said Peters decided to plead guilty to avoid the expense and emotional turmoil of going to trial next year. Resnick said yesterday that he continues to plan for a trial against the Amicos. IRS and Federal Bureau of Investigation agents have spent more than two years investigating the case, and Resnick said he has spent more than 13 months preparing for a trial expected to last four months. The trial will involve the review of more than 80,000 real estate, mortgage and bank documents, and the testimony of scores of witnesses. "Now eight people have admitted to being part of this conspiracy that we've outlined in our indictment," Resnick said yesterday. "The fact that this many people have pleaded, and that most of these people have agreed to cooperate with the government will greatly assist us in the upcoming trial against the Amicos. At this point, we're assuming there's going to be a trial, and we're still getting ready for a trial." If convicted as charged, Robert A. Amico, 61, and Robert J. Amico, 39, face possible life prison sentences, and Richard N. Amico, 30, faces up to 30 years behind bars. In addition to charges of fraud and conspiracy, Robert A. and Robert J. Amico face charges of operating a continuing financial crimes enterprise. They are the first people charged in western New York under the federal law enacted after the savings and loans scandals of the 1980s rocked the nation's financial institutions. Robert A. Amico is free on $600,000 bail, Robert J. Amico is free on $230,000 bail and Richard N. Amico is free on $100,000 bail. Among those who have pleaded guilty and agreed to testify against the Amicos is their former real estate lawyer, Joseph Shramek, who represented both the sellers and the buyers in most of the Amico transactions. When he pleaded guilty earlier this year, Shramek said in court the mortgage fraud conspiracy was driven by "galloping greed" on the parts of those involved in the scheme to get mortgages of up to $450,000 on houses with assessed property values of about $200,000. Virtually all of the Amico houses are located in upscale Rochester suburbs, including Cobblestone Creek in Victor and in Penfield, Webster, Greece and other communities. The Amicos' primary business partner, mortgage broker Patrick McNamara, was the first to plead guilty in January, less than a month after he was indicted last December. Another defendant, John J. Siciliano, who has admitted falsifying his income and other records to get mortgages for numerous Amico houses, was also back in court yesterday after pleading guilty earlier this year in the case. Siciliano, accused of violating the terms of his bail for committing unspecified offenses, is being held without bail pending a scheduled hearing Dec. 7 on the bail violation charge.
Here is a link to all of the local stories on this case. http://www.rochesternews.com/extra/amico/ Enjoy!!!
