A Chicago-area real estate developer allegedly participated in a mortgage fraud scheme for six years, defrauding banks of at least $3 million.
The scheme allegedly ran from 2010 to 2016 and involved a number of properties on the city’s South Side, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Chicago.
Andrzej Lajewski, 53, owner of Des Plaines-based Highland Consulting Corp., and Chicago-based Quality Management and Remodeling Inc., worked with two mortgage professionals and the owner of a remodeling company to fraudulently obtain mortgage loans totaling at least $3 million, prosecutors said.
The group allegedly acquired the loans by making false claims about the buyers’ qualifications. These claims included inaccurate representations of buyers’ employment history, income, assets, source of down payment, and intention to occupy the properties the indictment said.
In some instances, Lajewski falsely claimed to lenders that the buyers were employed by his companies to help their qualifications, prosecutors said.
The federal indictment charges Lajewski, along with loan originator Agnieszka Siekowski, 46, of Northbrook, loan processor Aldona Bobrowicz, 45, of Arlington Heights and the home remodeler Andrzej Bukowski, 66, formerly of Wheeling, with multiple counts of financial institution fraud.
