TRENTON – Attorney General Jeffrey S. Chiesa announced that a woman from Kearny was sentenced to state prison today for leading a scheme to defraud a mortgage lender of $431,200 by filing a false  loan application to purchase a home in Newark in the name of a man who was deceased.

The leader of the scheme, Genilza R. Nunes, 38, of Kearny (aka Leticia Wilchez, Geny Silva, Gena Nunez and Genilza Borges), was sentenced today to 10 years in state prison, including two years of parole ineligibility, by Superior Court Judge Thomas V. Manahan in Morris County.  She pleaded guilty on May 8 to second-degree money laundering.  Nunes was ordered today to pay $42,404 in restitution to the lender, Provident Funding Associates, representing one-sixth of the $254,425 that the lender actually lost on the loan, and a fine of $150,000.  Five co-defendants are responsible for paying the balance of restitution to the lender. 

A second woman who took part in the scheme was also sentenced today by Judge Manahan.  Sheila Zullo, 46, of Green Brook, the owner of Ideal Title Agency, LLC, was sentenced to three years of probation.  She was ordered to pay $42,404 in restitution and a $20,000 fine.  She pleaded guilty on May 7 to third-degree money laundering.  She admitted that she illegally distributed the loan funds as escrow agent.

Deputy Attorney General Marysol Rosero prosecuted the case and handled the sentencing hearings for the Division of Criminal Justice Financial & Computer Crimes Bureau.

“In addition to this ringleader, who now faces a substantial prison sentence, we successfully prosecuted a lawyer, a real estate agent and two title agents, all of whom took advantage of their professional positions to defraud a mortgage lender of hundreds of thousands of dollars,” said Attorney General Chiesa.  “Our message is that we will prosecute all who engage in such deceitful conduct, whatever their profession or station in life, to the full extent of the law.”

“We investigated this mortgage fraud ring with the assistance of federal agents,” said Stephen J. Taylor, Director of the Division of Criminal Justice.  “Our Financial & Computer Crimes Bureau will continue to partner with law enforcement at all levels to prosecute complex white collar crime cases.”

On Sept. 13,                , 46, of Madison, a lawyer who took part in the fraudulent scheme with Nunes, was sentenced to seven years in state prison by Judge Manahan.  He was ordered to pay $42,404 in restitution and a fine of $150,000 for money laundering.                  pleaded guilty on May 21 to second-degree money laundering. He admitted that he laundered the stolen loan proceeds through his attorney trust account.

Two other defendants pleaded guilty earlier this year:

• Lillian Veras, 41, of Kearny, (aka Lillian Urena) pleaded guilty on May 14 before Judge Manahan to second-degree money laundering.  Veras, a real estate agent and notary, helped prepare false loan documents for the scheme and forged signatures.  She faces a recommended sentence of seven years in prison and a $150,000 fine.  Her sentencing is scheduled for Oct. 26.

• Maureen R. Stillwell, 51, of Somerville, an employee of Ideal Title Agency, LLC, who helped prepare false closing documents, pleaded guilty before Judge Salem Vincent Ahto on May 8 to second-degree money laundering.  She faces a sentence of up to seven years in prison and a $25,000 fine.  Her sentencing is scheduled for Dec. 21 before Judge Manahan.

A sixth defendant, Nuno J. Sousa, 37, of Union City, agreed to be charged by accusation with third-degree securities fraud and was admitted by the court into the Pre-Trial Intervention Program in April.  Sousa, Veras and Stillwell must also pay restitution to Provident Funding Associates.

Detective Sgt. Louis A. Matirko and Deputy Attorney General Rosero conducted the investigation and were assisted by Deputy Attorney General Michael Rappa, Special Agent Tanya Chavez, Office of Inspector General, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and Special Agent Robert Manchak, Office of Inspector General, Federal Housing Finance Agency.

Nunes acted as a principal of Leska Management, a bogus real estate management company. With Veras’ assistance, she arranged for the purchase of a home in Newark from a woman who had fallen behind in her mortgage payments. The seller owed $477,196 on her loan, but the holder of the mortgage, Kondaur Capital Corp., agreed to a “short sale” for $260,000 to a purported buyer identified by the defendants. A “short sale” is a pre-foreclosure sale where the mortgage holder agrees to permit the home to be sold for less than the amount due on the loan.

That sale was never completed.                , who held himself out as the attorney for both the buyer and Leska, told Kondaur the sale had fallen through.  He then negotiated with Kondaur to assign the mortgage to Leska at a discounted price of $219,877.  He never disclosed that, prior to assignment of the mortgage, the home was sold at an inflated price of $539,000 to a fictitious buyer created by the defendants.  Nunes, with assistance from Sousa, a mortgage broker, fraudulently applied to Provident Funding Associates for a $431,200 mortgage loan and purchased the home using the identity of a deceased man whose last name was “Benazi.”  Nunes created counterfeit bank records, employment records and false identification documents for Benazi for the loan application, and she had another man pose as Benazi at the closing. No payments were ever made to the lender on the loan.  The seller was never notified of the closing, and her signature was forged on the closing documents.

Stillwell handled the closing for Ideal Title and assisted in the creation of false closing documents used to deceive the lender.  She never collected monies due at closing from the buyer, and falsified HUD settlement statements to indicate that they had been collected and that the prior mortgage had been paid off.  In her role as escrow agent, Zullo, the owner of Ideal Title, misappropriated loan proceeds by wiring $376,032 to                ’s attorney trust account at Nunes’ direction.                 used $219,877 of the misappropriated funds to pay for the assignment of the mortgage and wired the balance of $156,155, representing the net illegal profits, into a bank account controlled by Nunes and Veras.  Stillwell, Zullo and                 were all compensated for their participation in the scheme.