Front Page  »  

Santa Margarita man imprisoned for mortgage fraud

December 26, 2012

A Santa Margarita man and two Santa Maria men who participated in a complex mortgage fraud scheme were sentenced last week to federal prison terms and ordered to pay $2.4 million in restitution to various lenders that suffered losses as a result of having funded loans procured through fraud.

United States District Judge John F. Walter sentenced Brian Armet, 36, of Santa Margarita to one year and one day in prison. Armet pleaded guilty in 2011 to conspiring to defraud lenders by preparing loans packages that contained false information about prospective borrowers’ employment and assets.

Walters sentenced Rigoberto Hernandez, 37, to eight months in prison and Julio Tamayo, 42, to six months in prison. After being indicted one year ago, Hernandez and Tamayo pleaded guilty earlier this year to mortgage fraud charges.

The judge ordered the defendants to pay $2,412,294 in restitution to four lending victims.

The fraudulent mortgage fraud scheme operated through Custom House Home Loans (CHHL), a Santa Maria real estate mortgage company that Armet started in early 2006. Armet was a licensed mortgage broker and the main loan officer at CHHL, where he prepared and submitted loan application packages. Hernandez and Tamayo worked at CHHL and helped prepare loans applications by obtaining information from clients.

In instances where the information was insufficient to ensure that a client would qualify for a loan, Armet, Tamayo, and Hernandez arranged with employers in the Santa Maria area to verify that they employed the applicant. Armet included the false and fraudulent employment information in loan applications that were submitted to lenders, including Homecoming Financial, Freddie Mac, Bank of America, and Carrington Mortgage Company. Lenders relied on these fraudulent loan applications that contained false information to fund loans.

As a result of this fraud, approximately 19 loans went into default, causing lenders to suffer approximately $2.4 million in losses.

The case against Armet, Tamayo, and Hernandez is the result of an investigation by the Santa Maria Resident Agency of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

 


Loading...
Subjects:                     
Related:


5 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

Well here is a relevant connection of the son to father. Maybe, just maybe people should dig a little deeper – this is on the internet.


Brian Armet Agent

Member of the National Association of REALTORS®

P. O. Box 45

Santa Margarita, CA 93453


(805) 720-3247 Office

Robert Armet


Maybe the apple didn’t fall to far from the rotten tree?


-2

Will they ever get Miller and Gearhart in Atascadero? It must be a free zone up there as McKinney and the city apparently just breezed thru The Printery rip off of federal funds (our money) and now have the Rotunda building to overcome. Atascadero apparently is not a crime free zone but a free crime zone.


0

Maybe in Santa Barbara county they will actually prosecute these mortgage brokers. Mortgage brokers in San Luis Obispo County just get a pass I guess.


0

Yep same family!! Same family as the guy who raped the girl in Atown and got away with it Rick Armet. I feel bad for the whole family. This Brian looks like a sweet nice family guy with young children even. Very sad how people get rapped up in $ that they have to commit crimes to survive. It is even sadder for the families who have to present themselves to the public after such dirty work!


0

Would this be the same Armet associated with Armet’s Landscaping and Robert Armet of the City of San Luis Obispo?


-8