3 men indicted in straw borrower scheme (4 of 4)
The fourth Solon case announced today by Cuyahoga County (OH) Prosecutor Bill Mason involves a new house at 38710 Flanders Drive. Ogbonnaya Edeh, 49, of Cleveland, fraudulently obtained an $850,000 loan from New Century Mortgage Company. He never made a down payment, never saw the inside of the house before the purchase, and never lived in it. Edeh was employed as a local cab driver, but he falsely stated he made $150,000 as a structural engineer for Classic Tango Engineering, and Phillip Taylor, the owner of that company, falsely verified Edeh’s employment and income. Edeh received $31,000 for this scam. Brian Chenoweth, president of Widdershin One, Inc., and Ike Osuji, a middle man, who posed as a buyer, were also indicted for their involvement in this scheme.
Edeh was a “straw buyer” in this scheme that involved other individuals, including Stephen Holman and Jeffrey Brown of Buckeye Lending, Inc. After Edeh purchased this house, Holman and Brown leased the home to a tenant, who signed the lease with Brown’s company, Marketing Land and Concrete, LLC. That tenant made rent payments that were intended to pay the new mortgage and these payments counted toward buying the home. However, the tenant he lost his $6,000 initial down payment and $22,600 in lease payments before realizing it was a scam. Neither Brown nor Holman used these payments to pay the mortgage obligation to New Century. Each defendant was indicted on several theft and forgery related charges, which range in prison time from one to five years. The house is now in foreclosure.
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