NEWARK — A Westfield man was sentenced to 12 months in prison for his role in a large-scale mortgage fraud scheme in which he obtained more than $1 million in illegitimate proceeds, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced.
Amedeo Gaglioti, 60, previously pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Susan D. Wigenton to an information charging him with wire fraud affecting a financial institution and money laundering. Wigenton imposed the sentence June 4 in Newark federal court.
According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court: From December 2007 through August 2010, Gaglioti engaged in a scheme to swindle mortgage lenders by causing fake “short sale” transactions and fraudulently obtaining mortgage loans relating to properties primarily located in northern New Jersey. Gaglioti was the closing attorney for these transactions.
As part of the scheme, Gaglioti would prepare two sets of false and misleading closing documents, including HUD-1s, for short sale flip transactions.
Through the preparation of these documents, as well as other acts, lenders accepted proceeds of purported short sales in full satisfaction of an existing mortgage. Gaglioti also caused lenders to fund mortgages based upon false and misleading information and documentation. Gaglioti obtained more than $1 million in illegitimate proceeds as a result of the scheme.
In addition to the prison term, Wigenton sentenced Gaglioti to serve three years of supervised release, ordered him to pay restitution of $2,001,245.89 and entered a forfeiture judgment of $1 million.
Fishman credited law enforcement agents of the FBI Newark Mortgage Fraud Task Force, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Richard M. Frankel; postal inspectors of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, under the direction of Inspector in Charge Maria L. Kelokates; special agents of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Office of Inspector General, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Christina Scaringi; special agents of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, Office of Inspector General, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Steven Perez; special agents of the Office of the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program, under the direction of Special Inspector General Christy Romero; special agents of IRS–Criminal Investigation, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Jonathan D. Larsen; and the Hudson County Prosecutor’s Office, under the direction of Acting Prosecutor Gaetano Gregory, for their roles in the investigation leading to today’s sentencing.
The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Lakshmi Srinivasan Herman and Andrew Kogan of the U.S. Attorney’s Office Economic Crimes Unit in Newark, as well as Barbara Ward, Acting Chief of the office’s Asset Forfeiture and Money Laundering Unit.