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Short Sale Fraud – Another Real Estate Agent Jailed

By Mike Wheatley | July 26, 2011

A female real estate agent from Connecticut has been sent to prison after admitting her role in an elaborate short sale fraud which is just the latest in a string of cases to hit the headlines in recent months.

Norwalk resident Anna McElaney, 38, was given eight months jail time and a three-year supervision order upon her release from prison. She had faced a maximum 30-year jail term for the crime.

real estate agent sent to prison for fraudulent short sale

Anna McElaney, 38, jailed for short sale fraud scheme. Image courtesy of Top News

Along with her real estate partner Sergio Natera, McElaney was accused of defrauding the Regions Bank over a property in Bridgeport which it held two mortgages on. The two agents conspired together to fraudulently obtain almost $30,000 from the property’s short sale, which they were responsible for handling.

McElaney told the court that she was the real estate agent responsible for listing the home, and that she received two vastly different offers from prospective buyers. However, she admitted that instead of informing Regions Bank of the highest offer received, a $132,500 bid from a genuine buyer, she instead claimed there had been only one offer on the property, a $102,375 bid from the BOS Asset Management firm.

However, this company actually belonged to her partner Natera, another fact that McElaney didn’t inform the bank about. Her reason for not saying anything, of course, was because she and Natera planned to buy the home themselves and then immediately sell it on to the other interested party and reap the difference in price.

Anna McElaney

McElaney and her partner, Sergio Natera, made almost $30,000 by selling the property to a third party. Image courtesy of mortgagereliefformula.com

Regions Bank agreed to the lower priced short sale, believing that this was the maximum amount they were likely to receive for the property, allowing the two agents to retain almost $30,000 in profit from the scam.

Natera has also pleaded guilty to the same charges as McElaney, and is awaiting sentencing for his part in the fraudulent scheme.

Mike Wheatley is the senior editor at Realty Biz News. Got a real estate related news article you wish to share, contact Mike at [email protected].
  • 4 comments on “Short Sale Fraud – Another Real Estate Agent Jailed”

    1. And the vast majority of people that I know that are doing this are not women, btw.

      Reminds me of when Martha Stewart got sent to prison for maybe making $40K, while the fatcat bankers who really fleeced the system just pay themselves bigger bonuses.

    2. This is just an example of a bad real estate agent who has given in to greed - this is not the way most real estate professionals behave - most agents are ethical and moral - this is just one bad apple and she deserves to lose her license to sell real estate and she should never be allowed to sell real estate professionally ever again.

      1. I will be a large sum of money that she learned to do this from some real estate "guru". There are hundreds of them out there, telling people they can flip short sales with no money and make lots of cash. I would hope that whoever taught her how to do this would also go to jail.

        The gurus would say that her mistake was using her partner's company to buy the SS. If a third-party company had been used, she would be out of jail.

        That's what the gurus are teaching. It's the biggest fraud in our country today. Finally, several states attorney general are having a look.

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