Arrest made in mortgage fraud scheme

Media reports over the weekend told of the arrest of a lawyer from Marblehead for his role in an alleged mortgage fraud scheme. According to a press release from the office of Attorney General Martha Coakley (the office that conducted the investigation and is prosecuting the case), the attorney would find homes that had pending sales and would then record a fictitious assignment of the existing mortgage in the hope that the attorney handling the closing would contact the bogus company listed on the assignment for a payoff figure and instructions. The check would then be sent to a post office box of the non-existent company instead of to the company that actually held the mortgage. Presumably, sign that something was amiss would be when the original lender began sending foreclosure notices for non-payment of that mortgage. Somehow the scheme was discovered and last Friday, when the lawyer showed up at the bogus company’s post office box to pick-up the first pay-off check, the state police were waiting and arrested him. His case is now pending in Superior Court.