Wayne Woman Gets 46 Months for Mortgage Fraud Scam

A Wayne woman has been sentenced to 46 months in jail for her role in a mortgage fraud ring that scammed New Jersey residents out of about $1 million, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced in a release Friday.

Sandra Mainardi, 52, pleaded guilty in Florida federal court to one count of wire fraud.

According to Fishman’s statement, Mainardi and other co-conspirators, including Daniel Verdia, 54, of Mahwah, filed false and fraudulent loan applications in real estate transactions. The applications listed the borrowers incomes at inflated rates. After they were approved, the schemers then prepared false statements saying the borrowers had made down payments or paid cash to close the loans.

The operation issued fraudulent mortgages for properties in both New Jersey and Florida.

In March, Crystal Paling, 52, of Sussex, who acted as the closing agent on the fake deals, was found guilty of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering.

Verdia and Jaye Miller, 62, of Pocono Lake, Pa., another accomplice, owned a shell company, Capital Investment Strategies, the release said. Paling wired the loan proceeds to a Capital Investment Strategies bank account.

Paling was sentenced last week to 37 months in prison, three years of supervised release and must pay more than $532,000 in restitution, Fishman said in the release.

Miller was sentenced to six months in prison, the release said.

Other accomplices Donald Apolito, 40, of Elmwood Park, and Robert Gorman, 64, of Long Valley pleaded guilty to related charges and were sentenced to five and two years of probation, respectively, Fishman said.

According to a NorthJersey.com report from 2009, the scheme, which the six people ran during the mid-2000’s, cost victims $1 million. The report said the shell company was based, for some time, in Mahwah.

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