Davidson man sentenced in mortgage-fraud conspiracy

A Davidson man was sentenced June 29 to 27 months in federal prison for his role in a mortgage-fraud conspiracy involving luxury condominiums in Oak Island.

Antoine Johnson, 40, was the last of the eight people convicted to be sentenced, according to the office of Jill Westmoreland Rose, the U.S. attorney for the Western District of North Carolina.

Johnson received about $200,000 in kickbacks through his company, A&J Entertainment, from fraudulently obtained inflated mortgage loans on 20 properties, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

From June 2007 through February 2008, according to court records, Johnson and the others created a scheme in which the condominium builders agreed to sell the units to straw buyers at an inflated price. Documents used to obtain the loans and close the sales falsified the true sales price; buyers’ incomes, assets and employment; the buyers’ intent to use the property as a primary residence; and the source of the down payment.

At the closings, the closing attorney prepared separate accounting statements instructing the builder to pay the difference between the true price and the inflated price of the condominiums to one or more of the conspirators, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

In some instances, the co-conspirators persuaded and bribed a bank employee to provide a bogus verification of deposit as support for the fraudulently obtained loan.

The scheme resulted in the loss of $4.5 million to lenders, according to the documents.

Johnson was charged with one count of mortgage-fraud conspiracy on Jan. 13 and pleaded guilty Jan. 27.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a release that Johnson was a “promoter” in the scheme, helping to bring the transactions together.

The others sentenced were:

*Real estate agent Robert Davis Jr., 41, of Charlotte, to 46 months in prison and two years of supervised release. Davis operated as a real estate agent.

*Mortgage broker Robert Mahaney, Jr., 55, of Ridgeway, S.C., to 30 months in prison and two years of supervised release.

*Promoter and straw buyer Ahmed H. Green, 37, of Charlotte, to 27 months in prison and three years of supervised release. Green acted as a promoter and sometimes as a straw buyer for the conspiracy.

*Real estate agent Carisa L. Majesky, 49, of Charlotte, to 24 months in prison followed by two years of supervised release.

*Real estate agent Somer Bey, 51, of Charlotte, to 17 months in prison followed by one year of supervised release.

*Promoter Eric Marlon Davis, 43, of Charlotte, to nine months in prison and one year of supervised release, nine months of which will be home detention.

*Bank employee Danielle Anderson, 41, of Charlotte, to six months in prison and one year of supervised release, six months of which will be home confinement.

Johnson will be ordered to report to the Federal Bureau of Prisons upon designation of a federal facility. All federal sentences are served without the possibility of parole.

Johnson was sentenced by Chief U.S. District Judge Frank D. Whitney. The case was investigated by

the FBI’s Charlotte division and the North Carolina Real Estate Commission.