Maryland pair accused of defrauding mortgage lender

A federal grand jury indicted two Marylanders on a dozen counts of wire fraud and identity theft this month in a 2008 scheme that used Baltimore properties to swindle a Beltsville lender out of more than $664,000, authorities said.

Cameroon native Dema Daiga, who lives in College Park, and Oluseun Oshosanya, 28, of Laurel appeared separately Monday in U.S. District Court. Bond was set at $2 million for Daiga, 28, entered the country after being granted asylum and is charged with committing the bulk of the scheme. A detention hearing was scheduled for Wednesday for Oshosanya, a dual citizen of Nigeria who is charged with six of the 12 counts his co-defendant faces.

Neither man has been arraigned.

They are among more than 50 people criminally charged in Maryland this year with mortgage fraud offenses, according to U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein, who helped form the state's Mortgage Fraud Task Force in February. The partnership among state, local and federal authorities focuses on fighting the fraud that ballooned during the past few years as the housing market faltered.

Maryland leapt to fifth place in the nation -- from 15th -- for reported fraud incidents last year, according to the Mortgage Asset Research Institute. The institute's research, based on data submitted by mortgage lenders, bankers and insurers, shows that most of Maryland's mortgage fraud involves falsifying loan application information, which Daiga and Oshosanya are charged with doing.

According to the indictment against them -- returned Dec. 2 and unsealed after their arrests Dec. 23 -- the defendants recruited unqualified "straw" buyers to apply for mortgages from Landmark Funding in Beltsville, using false information about their assets and earnings.

They kept much of the funding and bought six West Baltimore properties, most of which quickly went into default this year, according to the indictment, which says the scheme was put in place during a five-month period in late 2008. A seventh property purchase, attempted in December 2008, was thwarted by the company, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jefferson Gray said in court Monday.

If convicted, the defendants face a maximum of 20 years in prison and fines of as much as $250,000 on each of the wire fraud counts. Daiga also faces two aggravated identity theft counts, which carry minimum mandatory sentences of two years.

-- Baltimore Sun