A 10-count federal indictment was unsealed by the FBI and Thursday that charges Utah resident Christopher D. Hales with mail fraud, wire fraud, and bank fraud and with money laundering in an alleged mortgage fraud scheme. The indictment was one of many that have been investigated by Utah’s new Mortgage Fraud Task Force.

According to the FBI’s press release Hales and others conspirators “executed a scheme to produce income from false appraisals to artificially inflate the purchase price of the residences. Hales arranged to purchase the homes through straw buyers and took the false equity proceeds stemming from those sales for himself, the straw buyers, and the co-conspirators.” Continue reading →