Davidson man sentenced in Oak Island condo fraud scheme

A Davidson man was sentenced to federal prison this week for his role in a mortgage fraud scheme involving luxury condominiums in Oak Island.

Antoine Johnson, 40, was the last of eight defendants to be sentenced in the case, including six men and women from Charlotte, U.S. Attorney Jill Rose said Thursday.

Chief U.S. District Judge Frank Whitney sentenced Johnson on Wednesday to two years and three months in prison.

The scheme, which operated in 2007 and 2008, caused a total of loss of about $4.5 million involving about 20 properties, Rose said.

Johnson controlled A&J Entertainment Inc., a company used by the conspiracy to funnel kickbacks from the scheme and to support false or inflated statements of employment and income in mortgage loan applications, according to court records.

Those in the scheme recruited “straw buyers” to purchase condos with no intention of living in them or paying on the mortgage loans, court documents show.

The builder agreed to sell the units to the buyers at an inflated price, causing the lenders to issue mortgage loans based on the inflated prices, prosecutors said. Then, at closing, the closing attorney prepared separate accounting statements instructing the builder to pay the difference between the true price and the inflated price of the condos to those in the scheme.

According to court records, those in on the scheme induced mortgage lenders to issue mortgage loans, by submitting loan packages that contained forged documents and fraudulent information about the buyers’ income and employment.

In some instances, a bank employee was bribed to provide a bogus verification of deposit as support for the fraudulently obtained loan, according to prosecutors.

Johnson brought the transactions together, for which he received about $200,000 in kickbacks funneled through A&J Entertainment’s bank account, court records show.

Previously sentenced were:

▪  Robert Davis Jr., 41, of Charlotte, to three years and 10 months in prison. Davis was a real estate agent for the scheme.

▪  Robert Mahaney Jr., 55, of Ridgeway, S.C., to two years and six months in prison. Mahaney was a mortgage broker for the conspiracy.

▪  Ahmed Green, 37, of Charlotte, to two years and three monthsin prison. Green acted as a promoter and sometimes as a straw buyer for the scheme.

▪  Carisa Majesky, 49, of Charlotte, to two years in prison. Majesky operated as a real estate agent for the conspiracy.

▪  Somer Bey, 51, of Charlotte, to a year and five months in prison. She also was a real estate agent for the scheme.

▪  Eric Marlon Davis, 43, of Charlotte, to nine months in prison. Davis was a promoter in the scheme.

▪  Danielle Anderson, 41, of Charlotte, to six months in prison. Anderson was a bank employee who participated in the scheme.

This story was originally published June 30, 2016 at 11:21 AM with the headline "Davidson man sentenced in Oak Island condo fraud scheme."