Woodbridge Man Convicted of Mortgage Fraud

ALEXANDRIA, VA—A federal jury today convicted Godwin Asifo, age 55, of Woodbridge, Va., of running a mortgage fraud scheme that resulted in the foreclosure of at least three homes in northern Virginia.

Dana J. Boente, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia and Joseph Persichini Jr., Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI Washington Field Office, made the announcement after verdict was accepted by United States District Judge Claude M. Hilton.

Convicted today of two counts of mail fraud and one count of wire fraud, Asifo faces a maximum penalty of 60 years in prison and full restitution when he is sentenced on Nov. 20, 2009.

According to court documents and evidence at trial, from about May 2005 to June 2006, Asifo recruited straw buyers to purchase at least three homes on his behalf, promising to pay the mortgages and sell the homes for a profit within six months. To ensure the buyers could obtain the loans, he helped to inflate their incomes on loan applications, falsify employment records and provide them with thousands of dollars to artificially inflate their bank accounts.

The three homes—located in Woodbridge, Haymarket, and Ashburn, Va., and ranging between $335,000 to $765,000 when purchased—were not sold for profit as expected, and the straw buyers ultimately defaulted on the loans because they were not able to afford the mortgage payments, resulting in substantial losses to the lenders.

This case was investigated by the Washington Field Office of the FBI. Assistant United States Attorney Jack Hanly is prosecuting the case on behalf of the United States.

A copy of this press release may be found on the website of the United States Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia at http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/vae. Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia at http://www.vaed.uscourts.gov or on http://pacer.uspci.uscourts.gov.

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