Jeffrey H. Sloman, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, and John V. Gillies, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Miami Field Office, announce that today’s sentencing of defendants Danny Flores and Rolando Alfonso in connection with their participation in a bank fraud scheme that resulted in the approval and disbursement of two fraudulent home equity loans, totaling $1 million. U.S. District Court Judge Allan Gold sentenced each defendant to 45 months’ imprisonment, to be followed by 5 years of supervised release. Judge Gold also ordered the payment of $796,701.65 in restitution.

The defendants were indicted for their respective roles in obtaining two fraudulent loans, one from Bank of America and the other from Wachovia, each in the amount of $500,000. Flores and Alfonso prepared two fraudulent loan applications, one for Bank of America and one for Wachovia, using the stolen identification information of another defendant’s mother-in-law. Each loan application listed the mother-in-law as the purported borrower and a home owned by the mother-in-law as the collateral. Flores and Alfonso also obtained false documents in the name of the purported borrower, including tax returns, to support the fraudulent loan applications.

Flores and Alfonso submitted a fraudulent application to a corrupt loan officer at each victim bank. Both loan officers were co-defendants in this case and were previously sentenced to 22 months and 12 months (6 months of imprisonment and 6 months of home confinement), respectively. After the loan at each bank was approved and the funds were made available, the defendants disbursed and shared the fraudulently obtained loan proceeds, receiving in total approximately $800,000.

Flores and Alfonso pled guilty to conspiracy to commit bank fraud and identity theft, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 1349 and 1028A.

Mr. Sloman commended the investigative efforts of the Federal-State Mortgage Fraud Strike Force with special commendation to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Joseph B. Shumofsky.

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