Aruna Kumari Chopra indulged in mortgage fraud totaling $8.9 million.
AB Wire
An Indian American woman, Aruna Kumari Chopra, 66, of Modesto, California, has been sentenced to one year and one day in prison, to be followed by a year of home confinement, for her mail fraud conviction in connection with a mortgage fraud scheme.
According to the indictment, in 2009, Chopra purchased property at 4754 Dale Road in Modesto. She sought to finance the development of the property by trying to convince the city of Modesto to put into place a Communities Funding District that would issue bonds for infrastructure improvements.
She allegedly concealed from the city of Modesto that there were pre-existing liens on the property. She also allegedly provided the City of Modesto with fictitious contracts of potential sales of a fully developed property to support a higher appraisal of the property.
The indictment alleged that Chopra attempted to defraud other lenders, including the persons who sold her the property, by filing documents with the Stanislaus County Recorder’s Office that contained forged signatures. She is charged with aggravated identity theft for two instances when she allegedly forged the signature and used the seal of a notary public on a publicly filed document.
The loans made by the defrauded lenders on the property totaled approximately $8.9 million. Chopra pleaded guilty on November 30, 2015.