WHITE PLAINS – A Central Valley man Monday pled guilty in White Plains federal court to charges arising out of his participation in a scheme to defraud homeowners in the New York metropolitan area and mortgage brokers across the country.

Riccardo White, along with Gregory Cooper, Lawrence Burke, Zachary Cutler and others operating mainly from an office in Cooper’s Central Valley home, engaged in a scheme to defraud homeowners around the New York metro region through misrepresenting the terms of mortgages. The men contacted homeowners and offered them mortgages with low interest rates for as many as five years and attractive rate caps.

The terms of the mortgages obtained by homeowners by defendants were materially different from those offered by the defendants.

The loss to the homeowners defrauded by the scheme was over $1.3 million.

The men also engaged in a scheme to defraud residential mortgage brokers throughout the country. They contacted brokers and sold them lists of names containing individuals purportedly interested in obtaining mortgages, as well as services associated with those lists.

Those lists were not lists of persons interested in obtaining mortgages, defrauding the brokers of over $350,000.