A federal grand jury indictment accuses four real estate professionals of preparing fraudulent loan applications to obtain more than $55 million in residential mortgages for northern California home buyers, prosecutors said.
The indictment unsealed Nov. 9 alleges that Tjoman Buditaslim, also known as Joe Lim, 51; Travis Holasek, 51; Jose Alfonso Tellez, 26; and Jose De Jesus Martinez, 58, engaged in the mortgage fraud scheme between May 2019 and Aug. 23, 2023.
The defendants are accused of creating false divorce documents and child support checks for people who had never been married or even met, and fabricating bank statements with inflated balances, to qualify buyers for home loans, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California.
A mortgage origination company, which was not identified, lost about $8.1 million in the scheme, prosecutors said.
Buditaslim, Holasek, Tellez and Martinez were accused of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Buditaslim, Holasek and Martinez were also accused of aggravated identify theft.