Easton Man Sentenced to Year in Jail for Mortgage Fraud

A 56-year-old Easton man was sentenced to 12 months and one day of imprisonment followed by three years of supervised release for his role in a Farifield County mortgage fraud scheme, the United States Attorney for Washington, D.C. announced earlier this week.

Fred Stevens will serve three months of house arrest after he's released from jail and pay a $7,500 fine, the attorney announced.

"According to court documents and statements made in court, Stevens, a mortgage broker based in Westport, participated in a mortgage fraud scheme with William A. Trudeau, Jr. and others," a press release from the attorney's office reads. "As part of the scheme, Trudeau and his co-conspirators submitted false mortgage loan applications to financial institutions to obtain mortgages on various properties in Fairfield County in order to develop and sell the properties for profit, and to pay off debts owed to 'hard money' lenders from whom they had previously obtained high interest loans. The mortgage applications, which included false income information and omitted the mortgage applicants’ true indebtedness, caused the financial institutions to issue mortgage loans on properties that Trudeau and his co-conspirators would not have otherwise been qualified to purchase, allowing the applicants to qualify for mortgages that far exceeded their ability to repay the loans."

According to the press release, Stevens submitted eight fraudulent mortgage applications on behalf of Trudeau and others in exchange for $130,142.38 in fees, and mortgage lenders lost approximately $2 million as a result of this scheme. The court ordered him to pay $2,070,000 in restitution.

Stevens pleaded guilty to bank fraud in November 2008 and "testified extensively" at Trudeau's trial, according to the release. Trudeau was found guilty of conspiracy to commit bank fraud, mail fraud and wire fraud, and one count of wire fraud in October 2012. In February 2013, Trudeau was sentenced to more than 15 years in prison.