Mortgage fraud earns man a 33-month term

A Salt Lake man has been sentenced to 33 months in federal prison for his role in a mortgage fraud scheme.

Rob Ellertson, 42, was sentenced earlier this month by U.S. District Judge Dee Benson, who also ordered Ellertson to pay about $2.8 million in restitution to victims' mortgage and title-insurance companies.

Ellertson pleaded guilty last March to two counts of wire fraud and admitted that from March 2002 to September 2003, he and another man devised a scheme to obtain loan money and property from mortgage companies by means of a straw buyers scheme. The scheme involved buying lots in Salt Lake and Summit counties and then recruiting people who were paid a fee for permission to use their names and financial information to take out loans.

According to the plea agreement signed by Ellertson, he admitted that he completed all loan applications on behalf of the straw borrowers, which is against the law. He also misrepresented the borrowers' incomes and indicated that the borrowers intended to occupy the property when they did not.