2 charged with looting millions in mortgage scams

BY ANTHONY M. DESTEFANO | anthony.destefano@newsday.com

7:39 PM EDT, May 8, 2008

Two Brooklyn men were arrested Thursday on federal charges that they used their defunct mortgage company to pull a series of ripoffs, including $44 million involving over 250 home loans funded by Fannie Mae, the federally sponsored pool of home mortgages, officials said.

Charged with conspiracy, wire and mail fraud in a four-count indictment unsealed in Brooklyn federal court were Leib Pinter,64, and Barry Goldstein, 59. Both men were identified in the indictment as principles of Olympia Mortgage Corp., which was on Coney Island Avenue until it closed in late 2004.

The charges are the first brought by a new mortgage fraud unit in the Eastern District U.S. Attorney's office in Brooklyn.

Pinter was accused of misappropriating $44 million disbursed by Fannie Mae to refinance some 257 original home mortgages. The indictment charged that instead of using the funds to pay off the original loans owned by Fannie Mae, Pinter stole the money, leaving tens of millions of dollars in unpaid mortgages that had been refinanced through Olympia.

In a second scheme, Goldstein was accused of falsifying bad loan repayment histories to fool Credit Suisse First Boston, the investment banking firm, into repurchasing what were actually non-performing mortgages.

Brooklyn prosecutors said that Credit Suisse purchased 12 loans with false payment histories. Investigators didn't put a dollar amount on those loans. Both Pinter and Goldstein pleaded not guilty. Magistrate-judge Joan Azrack released Pinter on an $800,000 bond secured by his home while Goldstein was released on a $350,000 bond, also secured by his residence.