Man Sentenced To 75 Months For Mortgage Fraud

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – A district court judge sentenced the CEO and co-owner of Enzo Mortgage Group to more than six years in prison and to pay more than $800,000 in restitution for being involved in a multimillion dollar mortgage fraud scheme, the Hennepin County Attorney's Office said.

Judge George McGunnigle sentenced Michael Hudalla, of Mendota Heights, to 75 months in prison on two counts of racketeering.

Hudalla must pay restitution of $396,986 to CitiMortgage and $477,037 to Provident Funding. He must also pay a fine of $10,000, which will be put towards the cost of the investigation and the prosecution, the Hennepin County Attorney's Office said.

Hudalla is also banned from working in the mortgage business again.

Enzo Mortgage Group, the company Hudalla co-owned, was involved in a scheme in which the company's employees would write false mortgage loan applications, claim large real estate commissions, launder those commissions through an Edina bank and then distribute the money as kickbacks.

The scheme involved condos on the 14000 block of 60th Street North in Oak Park Heights. This scheme took place in 2007 between the months of April and October.

The scheme caused all the condos to go into foreclosure, which ruined housing prices in that area.

The scheme involved $2.2 million in fraudulently-obtained mortgages, and Hudalla received $335,000 in kickbacks, the Hennepin County Attorney's Office said.