Broker Sentenced To the Federal Pen

 

BROKER SENTENCED TO THE FEDERAL PEN

 

Battles Given 30 Months Behind Bars

 

By W. ORLANDO PIERCE
Special to the Chronicle

 

An Oklahoma City real estate agent with T&T Realty has been sentenced to two 30-month sentences in federal prison.
Safiyyah Tahir Battles was sentenced earlier this month for mortgage fraud and money laundering, according to U.S. Attorney Sanford C. Coats.
She was convicted by a jury last June on charges of using an interstate wire facility to defraud Saxon Mortgage of Ft. Worth, Texas, and for engaging in a monetary transaction with more than $10,000 from the proceeds of a crime.
Mrs. Battles was convicted on two counts of a three-count indictment. She received a 30-month sentence for each of the two counts, and the terms will run concurrently.
The first count was dismissed on the motion of federal prosecutors.
In April 2007, testimony revealed, Mrs. Battles used her sister’s mortgage brokerage company, Lending Leaders, to apply for a $500,000 loan from Saxon Mortgage.
The mortgage company required her to provide 12 months of bank statements to support her income and assets, testimony revealed.
The jury heard evidence that the bank statements had been altered by adding more than $100,000 to the ending balance on each statement by deleting her husband’s name as an account holder and by removing numerous overdraft fees.
At the closing of the mortgage deal with Saxon Mortgage in May 2007, Mrs. Battles signed a final loan application that stated falsely that she earned $344,677 per year and had $165,907 in her bank account, federal prosecutors argued.
According to a tax return she filed in March 2009, prosecutors said, Miss Battles’ adjusted gross income for 2006 was $14,001.
Prosecutors also pointed out that, according to the records of First Security Bank, her actual account balance on May 4, 2007, was $852.50.
Based on the application information, a forged letter and communications with the mortgage brokerage firm, on the day of closing, Saxon Mortgage authorized $102,630 from the loan proceeds to be paid to a local builder, and issued a check for that amount.
Mrs. Battles took the check, deposited it into her own bank account and used it for her own purposes, federal prosecutors said.
The money-laundering count related to a $15,000 check Mrs. Battles wrote to her mother, Trina Tahir, two days after she deposited the $102,630 check.
On Feb. 2, Federal District Judge Timothy D. DeGiusti sentenced Mrs. Battles to 30 months in prison and ordered her to pay restitution of $326,902.
In addition, she will be required to serve two years on supervised release after her prison term, including 104 hours of community service.
The court also imposed a forfeiture judgment of $102,630.
The sentence was based on the counts of conviction, as well as fraud that Mrs. Battles committed in connection with five other residential mortgages.