Minn. Couple Sentenced For Mortgage Fraud Scheme

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A federal judge has sentenced a Stillwater couple for orchestrating a $5 million mortgage fraud scheme.

U.S. District Judge David Doty on Thursday sentenced 52-year-old James Hoffman to 6.5 years in prison. The judge also ordered Hoffman to pay $344,000 in restitution to victims.

Doty sentenced 53-year-old Teresa Hoffman to a year and a day in prison.

The Hoffmans pleaded guilty in February.

According to the indictment, James Hoffman conspired from 2001 through 2009 to defraud mortgage lenders and obtain money from those lenders. The indictment alleged that Teresa Hoffman began participating in the scheme in August 2006.

The couple allegedly recruited straw buyers to purchase real estate in both Minnesota and Wisconsin with the proceeds of fraudulent mortgage loans arranged by James Hoffman, and sometimes by both defendants.

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