Mark Steven Diamond, 67, from Chicago, Illinois, has pleaded guilty to a federal fraud charge related to defrauding elderly homeowners in a scheme involving home repairs and reverse mortgages. He conspired with others to manipulate homeowners into unknowingly securing reverse mortgage loans to finance supposed home repairs that he promised to carry out. Diamond and his co-conspirators specifically targeted elderly individuals based on the equity in their homes and their limited financial understanding.
In some cases, Diamond misled homeowners by falsely claiming they needed to sign documents for the repair work, while those documents were actually related to the loan applications. Once the loans were approved and disbursed by his accomplices, Diamond illegally profited from the proceeds and frequently failed to deliver any repair services.
He has pleaded guilty to a federal charge of wire fraud impacting a financial institution, which carries a potential prison sentence of up to 30 years. In a plea agreement, Diamond admitted to victimizing at least 18 homeowners in the Chicago area and fraudulently obtaining around $929,000 from lenders through reverse mortgage loans. The government plans to argue at sentencing that there were at least 80 victims and that Diamond’s actions led to losses of approximately $6 million. U.S. District Judge Franklin U. Valderrama has scheduled Diamond’s sentencing for September 4, 2024.
The guilty plea announcement came from Morris Pasqual, Acting United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, alongside Machelle L. Jindra, Special Agent-in-Charge of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Office of Inspector General in Chicago, and Robert W. “Wes” Wheeler, Jr., Special Agent-in-Charge of the FBI’s Chicago Field Office. The Illinois Attorney General’s Office also provided substantial assistance in the investigation. The government is represented by Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian P. Netols and Assistant U.S. Attorney Erin Kelly.
All four co-conspirators involved in the case – loan originators Gary Bohn, from Hoffman Estates, Illinois, and Matthew Fefferman, from Munster, Indiana; Diamond’s employee Cynthia Wallace, from Sauk Village, Illinois; and title agency owner Forrest C. Fawcett, from Fort Lauderdale, Florida – have previously pleaded guilty and acknowledged their participation in the fraudulent scheme. They are currently awaiting sentencing.