The Virginian-Pilot
©
NORFOLK
A former real estate agent has pleaded guilty to a federal wire fraud charge in a $3 million mortgage fraud scheme.
Wayne M.B. Lezama, 44, faces up to 30 years in prison and $1 million in fines when he is sentenced in February. At his guilty-plea hearing Monday in U.S. District Court, Lezama agreed to cooperate with authorities in an ongoing investigation and pay back at least $1 million in losses sustained by financial institutions.
Lezama, originally from Buford, Ga., used an unidentified straw buyer and phony “gift letters” to secure mortgages for 11 houses, including one for a $790,000 home in Virginia Beach’s Lago Mar neighborhood, where he lived. Lezama used those mortgage proceeds for his own purposes, according to the court filings. Financial institutions that were never paid back were forced to foreclose on most of the houses.
The mortgages were obtained between 2005 and 2006, during the real estate boom.
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