SACRAMENTO, CA - Four Sacramento-area residents were charged with mortgage fraud Thursday by a federal grand jury.
Yevgeniy Charikov, 40, of West Sacramento, Vitaliy Tuzman, 40, of Citrus Heights, Nadia Talybov, 30, of Antelope, and Juliet Romanishin, 30, of West Sacramento were charged with mail fraud, in connection to a mortgage scheme, said Lauren Horwood, spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney, Eastern District of California.
Court records show Charikov, a real estate agent, used straw buyers, like Tuzman, to buy two properties at 100 percent financing. Then, Charikov recruited Talybov to buy the properties for over $200,000 more than the properties are worth.
Horwood said Charikov's wife, Romanishin, a loan officer, pushed through the financing for Tuzman's and Talybov's purchases.
When the straw buyers got their proceeds from the financing, they gave Charikov a cut. Talybov eventually defaulted on the loans, Horwood said.
Lenders lost more than $710,000 because of the fraud, Horwood said.
If convicted, the defendants face a maximum 25 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
News10/KXTV