VISTA–Two North County loan officers admitted in federal court last week to fraudulently obtaining mortgages and siphoning off nearly $1 million in bogus fees.
Simon Saeid Koli 41, of San Diego, entered a guilty plea in federal court in San Diego to count one of an indictment charging him and co-defendant Kian Ashkanizadeh, 49, of Laguna Niguel with conspiracy to commit mail fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering in connection with a mortgage fraud scheme involving four expensive homes on Triton Street in Carlsbad. Co-defendant Ashkanizadeh previously entered a guilty plea to the same charge on July 9.
In connection with the entry of their guilty pleas, Koli and Ashkanizadeh, who worked at a mortgage company called Southern California Finance, admitted that they recruited family members and friends to supply their names and signatures on mortgage loan applications as the purported buyers for these million-dollar homes. They further agreed that they then fabricated the job titles, income, and assets of the purported buyers, so they could qualify for approximately $1 million in mortgage funding on each of the properties. Both men also acknowledged that they diverted $200,000 in sham “consulting fees” and another $45,000 in fraudulent “construction fees” from each of the four transactions.
They took most of the extra $980,000 that they diverted from the escrow proceedings, and admitted disguising these so-called “fees” by first funneling the payments through bank accounts owned by friends and relatives, and then causing the funds to be withdrawn or transferred for their own benefit.
Koli and Ashkanizadeh are scheduled to appear before U.S. District Judge Irma Gonzalez for sentencing on October 26.
