Marie Okechukwu Josiah

Here is a picture of Mayor Lucie Tondreau before her arrest by FBI for mortgage fraud. She was the first Haitian-American woman to hold the position. She has been a Haitian activist in the Haitian community in Miami for several years

Her three other co-conspirators were Karl Oreste, Marie Okechukwu Josiah and Kelly Augustin.

Oreste used to identify residential properties in South Florida that were open to sale. Oreste and Tondreau advertised the unique services offered by KMC Mortgage. They recruited some paid individuals who posed as the borrowers of KMC Mortgage. The conspirators prepared loan applications for these straw borrowers with false information which were submitted to various mortgage lenders throughout the United States. Once these loan applications were approved, the lenders wired loan funds to O.J. Odunna, and other title companies for closing. The conspirators created and submitted several duplicate HUD-1 Settlement Statement Forms where the price of the property was grossly inflated and it represented many false cash and down payments of earlier loans by the straw borrowers to close obligations which they never made. The disbursed portion of the loan amount was channelled through Oreste's corporation to the conspirators' bank and other accounts. A substantial portion of the funds went to Tondreau's bank accounts of the LTO Investment Corporation. It has been estimated that the lenders have suffered a loss amounting around $8 million. If convicted, the conspirators may face a maximum term of 30 years in prison.

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