TX Property Appraiser Sentenced To Five Years For Mortgage Fraud

Dallas, TX (AHN) - A federal court in Texas has sentenced an Arlington, Texas real estate appraiser to five years in prison and ordered him to pay $2.3 million in restitution for defrauding a mortgage lender in 2005.

U.S. District Judge Barbara M.G. Lynn handed down the sentence to Gandhi Ben Morka, who was convicted by a Dallas federal jury in August for one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and wire fraud, four counts of wire fraud and two counts of mail fraud against Countrywide Home Loans, the nations largest independent mortgage lender offering home equity.

Morka, 52, submitted to Countrywide fraudulent mortgage loan applications and appraisals for two residential home purchases in the Dallas area in 2005. He then paid the original owners of the properties and split the remaining fraudulently obtained loan proceeds with seven accomplices.

FBI agents arrested Morka in May 2007. His accomplices were also charged and sentenced to the same term and restitution.