Four charged in suburban mortgage sting

Federal agents used properties that were secretly government-owned to ensnare more than 20 suspects, including some from the Northwest and West suburbs, in a mortgage fraud undercover operation that lasted more than two years, authorities said Wednesday.

Among those charged were Ruwaida Dabbouseh, 58, of Glen Ellyn, a loan officer at Silo Mortgage Group in Palos Heights; Khaja Moinuddin, 64, of Bloomingdale, a mortgage broker at First Choice Mortgage in Bloomingdale; and Mohammed Nasir, 52, of Glendale Heights, a loan officer at First Choice. Siamak Safavi Fard, 50, of East Dundee, a business owner, was arrested in an alleged non-sting scam discovered as part of a separate investigation.

Dabbouseh, Moinuddin, and Nasir could not be reached for comment; no listing could be found for Fard.

Prosecutors say Dabbouseh was involved in at least four sham transactions, where he knowingly prepared false loan documents in three mortgage transactions. In a fourth, authorities say, when a lender became suspicious of an appraisal, Dabbouseh referred an undercover agent to a lawyer who then lied to the lender, claiming the house had had recent improvements that justified the higher price. Dabbouseh faces four counts of fraud.

Moinuddin and Nasir each face one count of fraud for submitting fraudulent loan papers, authorities say. "We sent people in appearing to be buyers," said Special Agent Rob Grant, the head of the FBI's Chicago office. "We were using property the government already owned."

The sting was arranged, in part, because of the growing incidence of mortgage fraud. In 2003, the FBI conducted 243 mortgage fraud investigations nationally. Today, it's nearly 2,000, Grant said. Illinois ranks third in the nation in such fraud, he added.

"If people think it's easy money (to commit mortgage fraud) ... the person they are helping to commit a crime (may) actually (be) working for the FBI," said Patrick Fitzgerald, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois.

In Fard's case, he and others solicited sham buyers, prosecutors said, promising them payments for their participation and explaining that they planned to buy the properties, rehab them and resell them. Fard and his associates and relatives then lived in the properties, an indictment said, often while letting the residences go into default. In all, about $4.2 million in fraudulent loans were obtained and lenders lost $1.1 million, the indictment said. Fard faces three counts of fraud.

Grant said 21 of 24 suspects were rounded up Wednesday morning, and he expects the other three to be arrested shortly.