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In the following To view links in this forum your post count must be 10 or greater. Your post count is 0 momentarily. Cuyahoga County (OH) Prosecutor Bill Mason announced that a jury found an appraiser in a mortgage fraud case guilty of all nine counts of mortgage fraud offenses. This was the prosecutor’s office’s first case to go to trial against an appraiser. Appraisers have been charged in other cases but have entered pleas.
Prosecutor Mason said, “Successfully prosecuting an appraiser for fraudulently inflating the value of a home is an important step in our fight against mortgage fraud. The jury rejected this appraiser’s bogus defense—that appraisals of homes are primarily based on opinion. This sends a strong message that all parties in these mortgage fraud scams will be prosecuted for their crimes.”
After an eight day trial, which began on Wednesday, February 18th, the jury found appraiser, Lavon Ivy, her father, John Ivy, who did rehab work on the house and their rehab company, PTOT Enterprises, along with a mortgage broker, Phillip Stevens, and his company, M & S Investments, collectively guilty of all 23 of the mortgage fraud offenses pertaining to a house at 25349 Tyron Road in Oakwood Village, near Bedford, Ohio.

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Lavon Ivy was found guilty of Theft by Deception, Securing a Writing by Deception, Forgery, Communications Fraud, Receiving Stolen Property, and Falsification. She faces a maximum prison sentence of 26 1/2 years. John Ivy was found guilty of Forgery and Receiving Stolen Property, and he faces a maximum prison sentence of 4 1/2 years. Mortgage broker, Phillip Stevens, was found guilty of Theft by Deception, Securing a Writing by Deception, and Falsification, and he faces a maximum prison sentence of 10 1/2 years. Sentencing is scheduled for March 26 at 1pm in Judge Hollie Gallagher’s courtroom.

Appraiser Ivy, 38, of Orange Village, was the key defendant in this mortgage fraud scam that started with 7 other defendants. She acted as an appraiser and deal maker, and she fraudulently submitted an inflated appraisal of the property. An expert testified for the prosecutor’s office that Ivy’s appraisal of $165,000 was inflated by at least $30,000, that she failed to disclose known violations, and that she failed to disclose that she and her father and their rehab company got money at closing to repair the house. In her deal making role, Ivy was also found guilty of deceiving the lender to make a $132,000 loan by submitting false documents, including a bogus $165,000 purchase agreement, which was needed in order to match the bogus appraisal to obtain a larger loan for the buyer. The actual purchase price was $90,000 with the buyer to fix all of the housing violations.
Also, Lavon Ivy and her father, John Ivy, 70, of Orange Village, deceived Kenneth ONeal, 51, of Warrensville Heights. At the loan closing, they diverted money that was to be used to rehab this Oakwood house from ONeal to themselves. Although a victim of this deception, ONeal falsified his loan application when he relied on Lavon Ivy to take care of the financing documents. As a result, he accepted a plea because he signed a false application that contained an inflated income amount and an inflated bank balance of $42,000 to cover fake document of a $42,000 down payment. The mortgage broker, Phillip Stevens, 52, of Akron, and his company, M & S Investment, fraudulently processed the loan.
After ONeal signed the purchase agreement, he contacted Lavon Ivy, a licensed mortgage broker as well as a licensed appraiser, to close the deal. Lavon fraudulently substituted ONeal’s $90,000 purchase agreement for one with a purchase price of $165,000 to enable her to get a larger loan, a $132,000 loan from New Century Mortgage Company in Columbus, which is now out of business. In addition, she acted as the appraiser and submitted a false property appraisal, as well as assisted in submitting a false loan application and a fraudulent down payment scheme.
ONeal and the seller, Eugene Jones, 42, of Highland Hills, signed a closing document stating that he paid $42,000 to cover the difference between the false $165,000 purchase agreement and the $132,000 loan. But, this payment was never made because Lavon Ivy and Stevens, the mortgage broker, deceived the lender into believing the fake $42,000 down payment was made, when it was not. Like ONeal, Jones accepted a plea because of this falsification. Both ONeal and Jones testified against the defendants.
Finally, Lavon arranged for her father’s repair contracting company, PTOT Enterprise, of Pepper Pike, to receive $25,581.48 for rehab work on ONeal’s house that was never completed. ONeal has not been able to move into his house because existing code violations, which were supposed to be fixed by PTOT, were never rectified. ONeal contacted Beachwood Police Department, and a detective uncovered this series of scams during his investigation. The house fell into in foreclosure and ONeal lost the house.


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