Maryland woman pleads guilty to $100,000 real estate bank fraud, faces 30 years in prison

ALEXANDRIA, Va. - A Maryland woman has pled guilty to bank fraud, where she schemed to defraud a mortgage lender.

The suspect has been identified as 64-year-old Maria Esperansa Salgado. According to court documents, from at least August 2012 through April 2019, Salgado, devised a scheme to defraud a mortgage lender into agreeing to a short sale, or pre-foreclosure sale, of a residential property in Alexandria that was pending foreclosure for non-payment of the mortgage. 

Salgado and her brother had purchased and lived in the property for about ten years. Officials say after filing a Chapter 7 petition for bankruptcy to discharge her debts in 2013, she used the identity of an unsuspecting victim to obtain a home mortgage from a lender. She then entered into fraudulent sales contracts with straw purchasers and the victim to make it appear as if she was selling the property to third parties as part of an arms-length transaction. 

The fraudulent sales contracts made it appear as if the straw purchasers and the victim were buying the house on behalf of themselves. In truth, Salgado’s intention was to retain ownership of the property and the proceeds from the fraudulent short sale.

According to officials, in 2015, Salgado executed a fraudulent refinance of the property using the name of straw purchasers and kept the proceeds. The victim was unaware of the re-finance. In 2019, Salgado used a nominee owner to sell the property to a third-party buyer. Salgado and the nominee owner received the proceeds of the fraudulent sale and paid off the remaining loan balance and used a portion to purchase a new property in Ft. Washington, Maryland.

The scheme resulted in $146,188 of loss to the mortgage lender. As part of her plea agreement, Salgado agreed to pay restitution to the victim and to forfeit the proceeds of the bank fraud.

Salgado is scheduled to be sentenced on February 21, 2024. She faces a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison. Actual sentences for federal crimes are typically less than the maximum penalties.