Crime & Safety

Annandale Loan Officer Sentenced to Four Years in Prison for Phony Mortgage Loans

Pervaiz Arshad of Annandale-based E-Star Lending gained loans for straw buyer using false information.

Annandale resident Pervaiz Arshad, 58, was sentenced Friday to four years in prison for his role in phony mortgage loans involving nine homes in Northern Virginia and nearly $1.7 million in losses to lenders, according to the Justice Department. Arshad was a loan officer for Annandale-based E-Star Lending.

Arshad was ordered to pay restitution to the victim lenders and to forfeit the proceeds of his crimes. Arshad pled guilty to the charges in August.

Arshad also attempted to obtain a fake passport for a "straw buyer" who planned to flee to Canada and recruited an individual to serve as a straw buyer in fraudulent real estate transactions designed to enrich himself and others.

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The properties, owned by co-conspirators, were sold to the straw buyer at a profit. Arshad made sure the straw buyer would qualify for the 100-percent financing used to buy the properties by reporting false employment and income information on the loan applications.

Conspirators set up fake companies to verify the false employment information and further deceive the lenders. No payments were made on the loans, and Arshad intended for the straw buyer to flee to Canada before the fraud was discovered. 

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Indicted in 2010, Arshad fled to Pakistan to avoid prosecution. Officials arrested him two years later, in July 2012, when was was discovered on a flight into Dulles International Airport. This isn't the first time employees with E-Star Lending have been in the news. Arshad is the sixth individual associated with company to be convicted of mortgage fraud-related charges since 2008. 

Neil H. MacBride, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia; James W. McJunkin, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office; and Gary Barksdale, Inspector in Charge of the Washington Division of the United States Postal Inspection Service, made the announcement after sentencing by United States District Judge T. S. Ellis III.  Arshad pleaded guilty to conspiracy and passport fraud charges on Aug. 22, 2012.

This case was investigated by the FBI’s Washington Field Office and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. Assistant United States Attorney Paul J. Nathanson is prosecuting the case on behalf of the United States.


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