Four
Stanislaus County men and one Fresno County man, all connected with
local auto dealerships, have been indicted by a federal grand jury on
allegations of bank fraud.
Abdel
Baset Jawad, 36, Abdul Muniem Mohamed Jawad, 37, Najeh Kamal Jawad,
49, and Husam Sarama, 27, all of Stanislaus County, and Hussein Ali, 52,
of Fresno County, were indicted on charges of conspiracy to commit bank fraud.
The
Jawad brothers were owners and operators of various used auto
dealerships in Stanislaus and Merced counties. Ali and Sarama were
employees at the dealerships, according to the Department of Justice.
The indictment
alleges that the men conspired to prepare misleading and false
financial information that in turn was submitted to financial
institutions, in order to obtain financing for customers.
In
some instances the defendants entered fictitious information on loan
applications including the names of employers for which the customers
did not work, or, if the customers were employed, inflated earnings
amounts, according to the DOJ. As part of the alleged conspiracy, Ali’s
business was used as a fictitious employer or provided fictitious
earning statements for customers of the car dealerships. Some of the
customers signed these loan applications, while others had no knowledge
of how their signatures appeared on the applications.
“Because
of the defendants’ conduct, financial institutions approved loans to
customers who otherwise should not have received financing,” said DOJ
spokesperson Lauren Horwood.
As
customers were approved for loans, the dealerships would in turn
receive the money as payment for the purchased vehicles. In some
instances, customers defaulted on the loan provided by the financial
institution and the financial institution sustained a monetary loss.
The
indictment released Thursday was a superseding indictment of a previous
one lodged against the three brothers and Armando Fathic Abdullah, 41,
of Madera. Abdullah pleaded guilty to count one on Dec. 10, 2009 and is
set for sentencing on June 6.
The five defendants listed in the superseding indictment are scheduled to appear in court on May 20.
To contact Sabra Stafford, e-mail sstafford@turlockjournal.com or call 634-9141 ext. 2002.
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