BANKRUPT BANKER
Eddie Zaben, 39, is accused of using his company, Mya's Investments, to push phony and inflated mortgages through lending companies and banks
Sunday 14 June 2009
Eddie Zaben, 39, is accused of using his company, Mya's Investments, to push phony and inflated mortgages through lending companies and banks where he had paid other people to cooperate as part of the scheme. He was charged in Dearborn District Court with running a criminal enterprise and multiple counts of making false pretenses.
Six others have been arrested on other charges. Assets worth about $1.6 million have been seized, authorities said.The joint investigation, which is still under way, involves the Michigan State Police, the U.S. Secret Service, the state Attorney General's Office and the U.S. Attorney's Office in Detroit.State Police Lt. Marty Bugbee said Zaben was able to pay off employees in appraisal, title and lending companies in order to shepherd the applications through the system. A common scheme would be to buy a house then give an inflated appraisal for resale to a front man or a person using a stolen identity."They doctor up employment records and pass it along to a title company for closing," Bugbee said. The phony buyer might be paid $10,000, with Zaben pocketing the mortgage money, and the property eventually going into foreclosure.He said the scheme was in effect for "about three or four years. It peaked when the real estate market was really rocking and rolling."
