3 indicted in straw buyer fraud allegations (3 of 4)

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The third Solon case announced today by Cuyahoga County (OH) Prosecutor Bill Mason involves the home at 35532 Nightshade Lane. Estelle Jackson, 63, of Bedford, fraudulently bought this house by obtaining a $625,000 loan from Meritage Mortgage Corporation. She falsely claimed that she made $122,400 as an account representative for L’Oreal USA, when she made approximately $38,000 as a machine operator for that company. She was a “straw buyer,” as she allowed Frederick Watkins, a licensed mortgage broker at Premier Funding of Ohio, Inc. to lease (with the option to buy) this property to unsuspecting renters who paid Watkins approximately $27,000 before they realized it was a scam.

These unsuspecting renters thought their payments were sent to the lender to pay the new mortgage loan. Watkins kept this money and he never paid the mortgage in Jackson’s name. Jackson received $31,000 for the scheme that, in addition to Watkins and Premier, involved the construction company, Northcoast Construction, which was owned by Floyd Patterson, also a mortgage broker at Premier. Watkins, Patterson and Premier were indicted in January in another Solon mortgage fraud case. Each defendant was indicted on five or more theft and forgery related charges, which range in prison time from one to five years. This house is now in foreclosure.
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