Lockhart said the trio was busted following an investigation by the Greater Dayton Mortgage Fraud Task Force.
According to court documents, Chew, doing business under the names Raging Bull Enterprises and All World Capital Corporation, and Pierson, doing business under the name of Omega Title, LLC, allegedly recruited investors to buy and sell real estate in the Dayton area using inflated property appraisals and false promises. The false and fraudulent information was submitted to lenders in order to obtain mortgages at the inflated property values and this money was put to personal use.
Between July 2003 and July 2009, the indictment alleges that Chew, Confer and Pierson conspired to fraudulently obtain over $17 million in mortgage loans from over 39 mortgage lending institutions, of which the three obtained over $7.9 million for their personal use.
Lockhart said over 57 property investors were victimized as part of this scheme and over 247 residential properties were sold and closed, 210 of which were in Montgomery County.
Chew is charged with depositing proceeds from fraudulent mortgage loans into his own bank accounts and structuring the transactions by breaking large deposits into smaller ones in an effort to evade IRS cash transaction reporting requirements.
All three face possible prison sentences of up to 30 years on the wire fraud charge and 20 years on the conspiracy charge. In addition, Chew and Confer face 30 years on the mail fraud charge while Chew faces an additional 10 years for money laundering and 5 years on each count of structuring financial transactions.
Lockhart commended the join investigation that included the Greater Dayton Mortgage Fraud Task Force, The FBI, IRS, the U.S. Postal Service, The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Office of Inspector General and the Perry Township Police Department.