Shetty v. Bienert CA4/3
This case has its origins in a species of shenanigans that led to the Great
Recession of 2008 – loans to uncreditworthy borrowers made purely for the fees and
commissions garnered by loan middlemen.1 In March 2003, Satish Shetty was indicted
in federal court for his role in a scheme to defraud Pan American Bank. Shetty’s scam,
according to the indictment, was to induce Pan American to make residential loans to
straw buyers (buyers who had no intention of actually buying the house or living in it) by
cooking up false documents, such as grant deeds, deposit receipts, and settlement
statements. Shetty would make money on the scheme by having companies he controlled
collect fees, commissions and profits on the funded loans. As federal prosecutors
ultimately structured their first superseding indictment in November 2003, Shetty was
charged with five counts of federal bank fraud (see 18 U.S.C. § 1344) and four counts of
money laundering (see 18 U.S.C. § 1956). He faced 230 y
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