The FBI is hunting a Guyanese man accused of masterminding a US$7 million mortgage fraud scheme in New York.
Ishwardat (Danny) Raghunath, 46, is accused of ripping off lenders and leaving numerous homes in foreclosure. He disappeared last week before he could be arrested, the New York Daily News reported yesterday. Raghunath allegedly recruited straw buyers with good credit ratings to purchase homes in Queens, Brooklyn and the Bronx according to an indictment in Brooklyn Federal Court.
In exchange for a US$5000 fee for using their names, the buyers were promised that they would not have to make payments on these “investment opportunities,” the indictment says.
Raghunath submitted bogus mortgage applications to lenders, inflating the sales price of the properties, then deposited the loan money in a bank account he controlled. After several months the mortgage payments stopped, and the lenders brought foreclosure actions against the buyers, the Daily News reported.
Also charged in the scheme are Halal Ahmed, 40, of the Bronx, and Phyllis Seemongal, 49, of Queens. They were arraigned on bank and wire fraud charges on Tuesday.
When FBI agents went to Raghunath’s home in South Ozone Park on Monday night, he was already gone, a spokesman for the FBI said, according to the Daily News.