(By Stella M. Hopkins, shopkins@charlotteobserver.com) A third lawyer has agreed to plead guilty in a mortgage fraud operation involving six pricey Union County neighborhoods and Charlotte’s Piper Glen golf course community.
Christine Calbert Gates, a Charlotte lawyer, is accused of being the closing attorney for “mortgage fraud cell No. 1, 2, 4 and 5,” operating in 2006 and 2007, according to federal documents filed this week. The case involves four counts of mortgage fraud conspiracy, each carrying a maximum sentence of five years and a fine of $250,000. Four counts of money laundering conspiracy could each bring up to 10 years in prison and fines. Gates, whose Web site says she has been an attorney since 1989, also agreed to surrender her law license, according to the plea agreement filed this week. Her office said she was meeting with clients on Friday and couldn’t talk. She also did not return a message left at her office. Her attorney, Christopher Chagaris, declined to comment. The mortgage fraud participants agreed to buy homes at one price from builders, arranged buyers at a higher price and lied to get mortgages at the higher level, according to court papers. Prices were generally inflated by $200,000 to $500,000. At closing, the difference between the two prices would be “distributed among members of the cell.” Gates presided over closings involving falsified documents and distributed the money to others in the “fraud cells, who then typically engaged in further financial transactions with such proceeds to further their schemes.” The federal criminal case says there were several mortgage fraud cells that “primarily targeted” the neighborhoods of Providence Downs South, Woodhall, Chatelaine, Skyecroft, Firethorne, Stratford on Providence and Piper Glen. In November, Charlotte attorney Demetrius Rainer was accused of being the closing attorney for “fraud cell No. 3,” in a case that listed the same communities. She agreed to plead guilty. In December, Waxhaw attorney Troy Anthony Smith was accused of being the closing attorney for “fraud cell No. 1 and 2,” another case listing the same communities. He, too, agreed to plead guilty. Prosecutors could not be reached for comment on Friday.Leave a Comment
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