Belleville Man and Sister Sentenced for Mortgage Fraud

A Belleville man and his sister were sentenced on Thuesday for their respective roles in conspiring to defraud financial institutions as part of a $15 million mortgage fraud scam that used phony documents and “straw buyers” to make illegal profits on overbuilt condos.

Dwayne Onque, 47, of Belleville, was sentenced to 63 months in prison, and Mashon Onque, 44, of East Orange, was sentenced to 30 months in prison.

A third accomplice in the scam, Nancy Wolf-Fels, 58, of Toms River, was sentenced to 42 months in prison.

All three had been convicted in a four-week trial in October 2014.

The defendants were each convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Dwayne Onque was also convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering.

According to the documents filed in this case and the evidence at trial:

The defendants and their conspirators schemed to defraud financial institutions by locating oceanfront condominiums overbuilt by financially distressed developers and negotiating a buyout price with the sellers. They then caused the sales prices for the properties — located in Wildwood Crest and North Wildwood, New Jersey, other locations in New Jersey and in Naples, Florida — to be much higher than the buyout price to ensure large proceeds. Other defendants helped conceal the true sales prices of certain properties through inflated sales contracts and finder’s fee agreements.

From 2007 through mid-2008, Wolf-Fels served as a loan officer at the Forked River Branch of the mortgage company, Mortgage Now. She and her conspirators originated six loan applications for unqualified buyers that contained false and fraudulent information. Working with her conspirators — including one who manufactured fake bank statements, retirement account statements and pay stubs to support the false loan applications — Wolf-Fels assembled the loan applications and sent them to victim financial institutions, which lent the unqualified buyers mortgage funds.

From late 2006 through mid-2007, Dwayne Onque served as a “straw buyer” of five properties in Middletown, New Jersey, and Wildwood, New Jersey. For each of the five properties, he signed false and fraudulent loan applications and closing documents that resulted in the release of more than $2 million of mortgage funds.

During 2006 and 2008, Mashon Onque served as a title agent at Tri-State Title Agency in Montclair, New Jersey. She acted as the closing agent for fraudulent mortgage loans orchestrated by her conspirators, including her brother, Dwayne Onque. The conspirators put together buyers and sellers in real estate transactions, and then filed false and fraudulent loan applications containing inflated income figures for the borrowers. After the mortgage lenders approved the loans, Mashon Onque prepared and signed fraudulent settlement statements that falsely claimed that the borrowers had made down payments to close the loans.

In addition to the prison terms, the three defendants were each sentenced to three years of supervised release.

Restitution will be determined at a hearing on July 9.