Mahwah Man Sentenced to 30 Months for Role in Mortgage Fraud Scam

A Mahwah man has been sentenced to 30 months in jail for his role as a co-conspirator in a mortgage fraud ring that scammed New Jersey residents out of about $1 million, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced in a release Friday.

Daniel Verdia, 54, of Mahwah, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to commit wire fraud and money laundering, the release said.

According to Fishman’s release, Verdia and other co-conspirators throughout the area filed false and fraudulent loan applications in real estate transactions. The applications listed the borrowers incomes at inflated rates. After they were approved, the schemers then prepared false statements saying the borrowers had made down payments or paid cash to close the loans.

In March, Crystal Paling, 52, of Sussex, who acted as the closing agent on the phoney deals, was found guilty of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering.

Verdia and Jaye Miller, 62, of Pocono Lake, Pa., another accomplice, owned a shell company, Capital Investment Strategies, the release said. Paling wired the loan proceeds to a Capital Investment Strategies bank account.

Paling was sentenced last week to 37 months in prison, three years of supervised release and must pay $532,497 in restitution, Fishman said in the release.

Miller was sentenced to six months in prison, the release said.

Other accomplices Donald Apolito, 40, of Elmwood Park, and Robert Gorman, 64, of Long Valley pleaded guilty to related charges and were sentenced to five and two years of probation, respectively, Fishman said.

The operation issued phoney mortgages for properties in both NJ and Florida, the release said. Sandra Mainardi, 52, of Wayne, pleaded guilty in Florida federal court to one count of wire fraud and was sentenced to 46 months in prison, the release said.

According to a NorthJersey.com report from 2009, the scheme, which the six people ran during the mid-2000’s, cost victims $1M. The report said the shell company was based, for some time, in Mahwah.

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