Three women are facing federal charges after running a multi-million dollar mortgage scheme, the U.S. attorney's office said.
Plano's 35-year-old Nicole Espinosa, or the "Short Sale Queen," 44-year-old Stephanie Smith, also known as Stephanie Parks, in Midlothian, and 28-year-old Dallas resident Selena Baltazar-Hill were indicted by a grand jury on Nov. 20 in East Texas.
They were charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud affecting a financial institution and conspiracy to submit false statements to a federally insured financial institution.
Information presented in court alleged the three used several digital companies, including Short Sale Queen, L.L.C., to find homeowners with properties in the pre-foreclosure short sale process and help in listing them for sale.
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After signing a listing agreement with the homeowners, the three women would submit fake documents, such as falsified purchase agreements and "proof of funds" letters from fictional buyers, to banks and mortgage companies to freeze the foreclosure process, according to the U.S. attorney's office.
Once submitted, the financial institutions would halt the process and waive any related fees. This pause allowed the defendants to find a legitimate buyer or cancel the deal, according to information shared in court.
The attorney's office said the defendants submitted fraudulent documents for about 88 properties, totaling over $8 million in sales, about $390,000 in commissions and processing fees and causing at least $2.5 million in losses to the involved financial institutions.
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The defendants are scheduled to appear before U.S. Magistrate Judge Aileen Goldman Durrett on Dec. 4. If convicted, they could face up to 30 years in federal prison.
The case is being investigated by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Federal Housing Finance Agency and Department of Veterans Affairs, and is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Anand Varadarajan.
A federal indictment is not evidence of guilt. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
