Another person sent to prison for role in Dorchester-area mortgage fraud

Andre Junior Lamerique, 26, was sentenced to five years in federal prison on Tuesday for his part in an effort to wring more than $10 million out of lenders in bogus transactions on properties across Boston, the US Attorney's office in Boston reports.

Lamerique is the ninth of eleven people charged in the case to either plead or be found guilty. Lamerique pleaded guilty last year to 33 counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy.

Federal prosecutors charged the eleven recruited "straw" buyers for whom they submitted inflated mortgage bids to mostly out-of-state lenders. The buyers got a fee, then disappeared, leaving the lenders holding properties not worth what they'd just spent for them. Lamerique's role was to recruit the phony buyers and to file the bogus applications for them.

Among the properties prosecutors say were involved in the fraud: 5 Coleman St., 21 Mascot St., 67 Milton Ave., 19-21 Vera St., 60 Thetford Ave., 96 Thetford Ave., 5 Holiday St. and 7 Claridge Terrace in Dorchester and 48 Wood Ave. in Mattapan.

The indictment against Lamerique and the others.

Framingham lawyer charged with role in alleged Dorchester condo-flipping scheme.

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