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Because of the housing crisis, WFR experienced a liquidity crisis in January 2008. That is when Findel perpetrated a scheme to defraud mortgage banks by reselling the same mortgages to multiple financial institutions, according to the criminal complaint. It is important to note that once WFR sold a mortgage, it relinquished any and all financial interest in that mortgage. But Findel would then create a second set of fraudulent mortgage documents (loan applications, promissory notes, closing sheets, settlement forms, etc.) and resell—for a second time—the same mortgage to a different secondary lender. Funds from the secondary lender’s account were wired through an escrow company to the account of WFR. Findel allegedly used those funds to pay corporate and personal expenses. The complaint alleges that Findel obtained more than $11 million from secondary lenders through his fraudulent mortgage transactions.

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That is when Findel perpetrated a scheme to defraud mortgage banks by reselling the same mortgages to multiple financial institutions, according to the criminal complaint. It is important to note that once WFR sold a mortgage, it relinquished any and all financial interest in that mortgage. But Findel would then create a second set of fraudulent mortgage documents (loan applications, promissory notes, closing sheets, settlement forms, etc.) and resell—for a second time—the same mortgage to a different secondary lender.