Headlines:
| Ex-cop in US mortgage scheme extradited |
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| Monday, 17 March 2008 | |
A former Jamaican policeman, who is accused of conspiring
with his wife to defraud millions of US dollars from residents in Fort Lauderdale in a
mortgage racket, was ordered extradited Monday.Forty-five year old Delroy Patterson was ordered extradited when he appeared before the Half-Way-Tree Criminal Court. Mr. Patterson decided not to challenge his extradition and agreed to return to the US to face the charges. His wife Yvette Scott Patterson, a mortgage broker, is scheduled to return to court next week. The Pattersons were captured two weeks ago by members of the Fugitive Apprehension Team. US federal authorities alleged that the Pattersons fled Fort Lauderdale to escape charges in a US$10 million mortgage scam. The couple was indicted in 2006 as part of an operation code name Operation Whose House. That indictment charged that the Pattersons conspired to commit mail and wire fraud. According to the indictment, Mrs. Scott Patterson was a mortgage broker from 2002-2005. She is alleged to have submitted fraudulent mortgage applications and false documentation to mortgage lenders around the United States by using straw buyers and the fraudulent identification of innocent victims. To date, Operation Whose House has resulted in eight defendants pleading guilty and one defendant being convicted after a ten day trial in April 2007. Another defendant Ishmael Grant was sentenced in June 2007 to ten years in prison for his role in the same scheme. |