In addition to Debbie Sferrazza, her husband, Salvatore, 70, also of West Chester; James Ashurst, 26, and his wife Heather, 26, also of West Chester; Keiron Ashurst, 44, of Fairfield; Whitney Bonapfel, 21, of Cincinnati, and; Tabatha Sturgill, 34, of Hamilton, are all facing dozens of federal charges.
Keiron Ashurst is the brother of Debbie Sferrazza; Bonapfel is the daughter of Debbie Sferraza; James Ashurst is the son of Debbie Sferrazza, according to the U.S. Attorneys Office. Sturgill is an employee of Sferrazza’s.
Agents began arresting the defendants Thursday morning at their homes, according to Fred Alverson, spokesman for the U.S. Attorneys Office.
Each appeared in court Thursday in the clothes they were wearing at the time of their arrest and shackled at the waist and ankles. Each was released on their own recognizance.
Only Debbie Sferrazza had secured an attorney before her appearance. The others were served a copy of the indictment and given a government-appointed attorney.
Because the case involves a conspiracy to commit a crime, each of the attorneys must be kept separate, and are not permitted to share information, according to Debbie Sferrazza’s attorney Bob Trainor, of Kenton County.
The indictment accuses the seven of operating a mortgage fraud conspiracy that involved family members and mortgage brokerage businesses from at least 2004 to 2009, the U.S. Attorneys Office said. The charges focus on 14 real estate transactions involving eight residential properties during that time period that totalled nearly $3 million. The indictment states the family likely laundered close to $900,000 during the five years in question.
The indictment alleges the family used fake documents — like verifications of employment, fake paystubs, fake Social Security benefit letters and fake W-2 forms — to obtain mortgages or refinances for themselves, other family members and other customers. The fake forms “showed a pattern of inflating the borrower’s income,” according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Instead of using the money they were loaned for home purchases or refinaces, they would pocket the money, Alverson said.
The loan applications sometimes misrepresented whether the property would be used as a primary residence or whether another property had been sold by the borrower.
In one instance, property was transferred to an unemployed mother-in-law who “had no intention of paying for or ever living in the property,” according to the indictment.
At the closings of the property sales, the defendants would often misrepresent the source of the borrower’s funds and divert the sale proceeds back through Debbie Sferrazza’s family, according to the U.S. Attorneys Office.
The scheme also included the sale of properties at inflated values in order to obtain additional funds from the mortgage lenders.
One of those properties, 7510 Wetherington Drive, is located in the Wetherington subdivision, one of West Chester’s most lucrative neighborhoods. It’s registered to a Maria Ashurst, according to the Butler County Auditor’s Office.
The auditor’s Web site shows the house was sold in August 2008 for $390,000 to Salvatore Sferrazza, then from Sferrazza to Ashurst for $670,000 in April 2009.
The indictment states the loan application used to purchase the home contained fake information about Sferrazza’s income and assets.
Each count is punishable by up to 20 years in prison, except for filing false income tax returns, which is punishable by up to three years in prison.
Following the hearing, Salvatore Sferrazza spoke on behalf of the family and declined to comment, other than to say they were not guilty.
The loan applications at times misrepresented the borrower’s assets, supported by fake bank statements or verifications of deposits, and allegedly misrepresented the identity of the mortgage broker or contained forged signatures of the borrower or other names involved in the loan application process, the indictment states.
The indictment states Debbie Sferrazza, who worked in the mortgage lending and real estate industry, managed several different companies, including Alpha Mortgage Lending, LLC; Alpha Mortgage Exchange, LLC; S.D.S. Processing LLC (also known as S.D.S. Inc.); and Target Loan Packaging (also known as Target Loan Processing).
In addition to the FBI, IRS and Postal Inspection Service, agencies participating in the task force include the Ohio Attorney General’s Office, U.S. Housing and Urban Development, the West Chester, Middletown, Springdale and Cincinnati police departments, the U.S. Secret Service, the Hamilton and Warren county prosecutors’ offices and several others.
Alverson said U.S. Attorneys are asking customers of any of the businesses to contact their local police agencies or the federal task force if they feel documents involved in their loans were forged, false or otherwise tampered with.
Contact this reporter at (513) 820-2112 or dgreber@coxohio.com.
About the Author