Real Estate Developer Among Four Individuals Charged in Mortgage Fraud Scheme
CHICAGO – RealEstateRama – A federal grand jury has indicted a real estate developer and three others for allegedly participating in a mortgage fraud scheme that defrauded financial institutions out of at least $3 million.
ANDRZEJ LAJEWSKI, who owned Des Plaines-based Highland Consulting Corp., and Chicago-based Quality Management and Remodeling Inc., schemed with two mortgage professionals and the owner of a remodeling company to fraudulently obtain at least $3 million in mortgage loans by making and causing to be made materially false representations to financial institutions regarding the buyers’ qualifications for the loans, according to an indictment returned Jan. 28, 2021, in U.S. District Court in Chicago. The false representations concerned the buyers’ employment history, income, assets, source of down payment, and intention to occupy the properties, the indictment states. In some instances Lajewski fraudulently claimed to lenders that the buyers were employed by his companies – even though he knew that was untrue – to help the buyers qualify for the mortgage loans, the indictment states.
The alleged fraud scheme lasted from 2010 to 2016 and involved numerous properties on the South Side of Chicago.
The indictment charges multiple counts of financial institution fraud against Lajewski, 53, formerly of Wheeling, the two mortgage professionals – loan originator AGNIESZKA SIEKOWSKI, 46, of Northbrook, and loan processor ALDONA BOBROWICZ, 45, of Arlington Heights – and the home remodeler, ANDRZEJ BUKOWSKI, 66, formerly of Wheeling. Arraignments for Siekowski and Bobrowicz are scheduled for Friday at 10:00 a.m. before U.S. District Judge Martha M. Pacold. Arraignments for Lajewski and Bukowski have not yet been scheduled.
The indictment was announced by John R. Lausch, Jr., United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois; and Brad Geary, Special Agent-in-Charge of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Office of Inspector General. The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Kalia Coleman and Jason Yonan.
The public is reminded that an indictment is not evidence of guilt. The defendants are presumed innocent and entitled to a fair trial at which the government has the burden of proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. Each count of financial institution fraud is punishable by up to 30 years in federal prison. If convicted, the Court must impose a reasonable sentence under federal statutes and the advisory U.S. Sentencing Guidelines.
