Fraud case ran deep

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — If you want to understand what went wrong in the housing market, the case of Ruben Rojas is an important piece of the puzzle.

Rojas, 30, a real estate agent from Vienna, Va., was sentenced to five years in prison Friday in U.S. District Court for his role as the ringleader in a massive mortgage fraud scheme that ran amok in the booming Washington-area real estate market four years ago.

When the fraud was uncovered last year, he was one of 20 people arrested. The scheme drew in family members, loan officers, other real estate agents, and straw buyers who falsified information about their finances to qualify loans. In still other cases, innocent home purchasers were pushed into mortgages they should not have received, and were left holding the bag when banks foreclosed.

The indictment against Rojas spells out some 25 properties worth $17.6 million that were purchased with fraudulent mortgages. All but two ended up in foreclosure and lenders collectively lost more than $9 million.

Prosecutor Marla Tusk said at Friday’s sentencing hearing that the government brought formal charges for only a small fraction of the fraud that Rojas and his cohorts committed. When police arrested Rojas last year, they estimated that he and others fraudulently purchased as many as 200 properties collectively worth $100 million.

Rojas, a permanent legal resident who will likely be deported to Bolivia after serving his sentence, personally profited by $2 million, Tusk said.

U.S. District Judge Gerald Bruce Lee imposed a five-year sentence that was even longer than what prosecutors sought.

“Homeownership is part of the American dream. What you did was destroy that dream,” Lee said.