Two Fiji nationals have been sentenced to prison in the USA for carrying out multi-million-dollar real estate fraud, the United States Attorney Generals Eastern District of California Office has reported.
52-year-old Jyoteshna Karan and 45-year-old Praveen Singh are both residing in Modesto, California.
Acting United States Attorney Michele Beckwith announced that Ms Karan received three years and four months in prison, and Mr Singh received two years.
According to court records, from 2006 through 2015, both conspired to make straw purchases and short sales of approximately 15 homes from Modesto to Sacramento.
A straw purchase is where one person buys a home on behalf of another person to get around certain restrictions.
The US Attorney Generals Eastern District of California Office said straw purchases are generally illegal in the real estate industry because they compromise lenders’ risk management practices.
After Ms Karan and Mr Singh acquired the homes, they allowed them to go into foreclosure and arranged for short sales with the lenders.
They then quickly resold, or flipped, the homes to other people at market rates and therefore reaped significant profits.
In doing so, they caused the lenders to suffer over $3,000,000 in losses, said United States Attorney Generals Eastern District of California Office.
Ms Karan and Mr Singh were experienced real estate professionals who used unwitting participants, fabricated documents, and shell companies to carry out their fraud.
