A Watertown man will serve six months in federal prison and must repay more than $400,000 for his role in a mortgage-fraud scheme, prosecutors say.
Former mortgage broker Jason Calabrese, 44, also was sentenced Tuesday to two years of supervised release. He also was ordered to make $400,585 in restitution and pay a $3,000 fine, the Connecticut U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
According to investigators and court records, in November 2005 Calabrese’s co-conspirator, Thomas Provenzano, obtained a $923,200 loan to buy a $1.1 million lakefront home in the town of Morris.
Despite Provenzano’s limited income, Calabrese – using inflated financial and employment information — arranged for him to get the loan to buy the house from an entity controlled by a second co-conspirator, prosecutors said. Calabrese’s company collected a $32,312 broker’s fee on the loan.
A year later, Provenzano refinanced the home, again using falsified information about his job and income, investigators said. This time at closing, Calabrese drew an $18,720 broker’s fee.
Eventually, all mortgage payments on the loan stopped, landing the lakefront house in foreclosure.
In May, Calabrese pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bank fraud. Provenzano and the second co-conspirator, Ryan Geddes, previously pleaded guilty. Provenzano was sentenced last December to 18 months in prison. Geddes awaits sentencing, prosecutors said.
