Courtesy of Joe Ryan/The Star-Ledger
March 10, 2010, 6:20PM
SECACUS — JERSEY CITY — A Jersey City police officer was charged today in federal court with bank fraud for allegedly lying to secure a loan of about $530,000, authorities said.
Brian Ragauckas, 36, of Secaucus, falsely claimed he was a first-time home buyer in 2008 when he applied for a loan from Countrywide Bank to buy a three-family house in Jersey City, authorities said. When asked about his home in Secaucus, Ragauckas said he was renter, not an owner, authorities said.
But authorities said the 11-year police veteran bought the Secaucus property in 2000 and was paying the $513,700 mortgage, authorities said. Last year, the officer defaulted on the loan, and the Secaucus home went into foreclosure, authorities said.
When interviewed by the FBI, Ragauckas admitted lying about the mortgage because he feared the bank would deny him a loan for the Jersey City property, authorities said.
Ragauckas appeared for a brief hearing in federal court in Newark, where U.S. District Magistrate Judge Mark Falk released him on $200,000 bail and ordered him to refrain from gambling. When asked why, Ragauckas’ lawyer, James Patuto, did not elaborate.
“None of these allegations have anything to do with his job,” Patuto said.
A Jersey City police spokesman did not return calls seeking comment.
If convicted of the bank fraud charge, Ragauckas could face a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison and a $1 million fine, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Leslie Faye Schwartz.
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Blogger Comment: Situations like this is but one of the many reasons why the requirements for documenation and verification are now very high in applying for a mortgage loan. Today, it would be almost 100% impossible to pull off this type of fraud because information is checked and double-checked and triple-checked. It is difficut to imagine how this officer even got away with this in 2008. If he was paying a mortgage loan, it should have more than obvious that he was not “renting.”
The moral of the story of course is to not be deceptive about anything when you are applying for a mortgage loan. Keep the FBI away from your front door.
Until my next post . . .
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