Ways To Get Out Of Debt

Owner Of Hartford Mortgage Company Pleads Guilty To Fraud Charges

April 26th, 2010

The owner of a Hartford mortgage company pleaded guilty in federal court Monday to multiple fraud charges for leading a conspiracy that federal prosecutors say bilked banks out of more than $1 million in home loans.

George Hajati, 31, of Westerly Terrace in Rocky Hill, was accused of conspiracy and eight counts of fraud.

Hajati owned Connecticut Partners Mortgage on Weston Street in Hartford and was charged in the conspiracy with Justin Williams, 32, of Newington, a loan officer and employee, and Douglas Sheehan, 39, a Meriden lawyer.

According to an indictment, the three men were accused of using misleading documents to induce lenders to make inflated loans to the buyers of property worth substantially less than the loan amounts.

Hajati and Williams were accused of creating documents that exaggerated the incomes, assets and work histories of mortgage applicants. The two men also provided the applicants with certified checks for down payments in an effort to make the buyers appear more creditworthy to lenders.

With Sheehan, the two also were accused of creating fictitious federal government loan closing forms to disguise the actual amounts of cash involved in real estate transactions and how it was disbursed after closing.

Hajati was accused of deceiving mortgage lenders nationwide on purchases involving nine properties in Hartford, East Hartford, Bloomfield, Vernon and New Britain.

FBI agents raided his Weston Street offices in November 2007, and a week later he fled the country. In January 2008, Hajati met Williams in Australia and the two traveled to Albania, federal prosecutors said.

In March, 2009, a month after Hajati and Williams were indicted by a grand jury in Hartford, Hajati was arrested by Albanian authorities trying to cross the border to Montenegro. He was extradited to the United States in July.

Williams pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy and three counts of fraud in October and awaits sentencing.

Sheehan pleaded guilty in 2008 to conspiracy and four counts of fraud. He awaits sentencing as well.

U.S. District Judge Mark Kravitz, sitting in New Haven, set Hajati’s sentencing for June 24. He faces maximum sentences of 30 years on each of the charges he faces.