Two sisters who worked at the same mortgage brokerage have been indicted along with their father in an alleged $3 million mortgage fraud scheme in which rental properties were converted into condominiums and sold to straw buyers.
Sisters Suzana Radojcic, 30, of Chicago, and Mirjana Omickus, 31, of Crown Point, Ind., were both employed at Bell Capital mortgage brokerage, where Radojcic was a branch manager.
They are accused of recruiting the straw buyers, and submitting fraudulent mortgage applications for them overstating the applicants’ income, assets and earnest money.
Their father, Budimir Radojcic, 54, allegedly purchased rental properties, converted the units into condominiums, and obtained more than $3 million in federal grants and mortgage loans under false pretenses, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors say Budimir Radojcic concealed his ownership of B&B Properties II Inc. to fraudulently obtain more than $500,000 in HUD Section 8 subsidized housing grants.
A 52-count indictment announced this week by Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan also names real estate attorney Mark J. Helfand, 62, and Christa Patterson, 37.
Patterson allegedly owned a land trust used to convey three condominium units back to Budimir Radojcic, using a deed of trust Helfand obtained from a straw buyer. Helfand is also accused of aiding the scheme by filing condo conversion documents with the recorder’s office.
