Crime & Safety
Woman Pleads Guilty to Role in Mortgage Scheme
Fatima Muller, of Westwood, admitted to profiting from a mortgage fraud scheme that was processed by a Ridgewood firm, according to a report on northjersey.com
A Westwood woman on Friday pleaded guilty to her role in a mortgage scheme that landed the county's former financing agency head in federal prison, according to a report on northjersey.com.
The newspaper reports Fatima Muller, 48, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Newark on charges she made numerous false statements on loan applications.
The applications containing those false statements were processed by Ridgewood-based Residential Mortgage Corp., the mortgage company founded by Ronald J. O'Malley.
O'Malley, of Upper Saddle River, is serving a two-year prison sentence for masterminding the scheme, which federal prosecutors said netted more than $200,000 from eight banks.
All the while, O'Malley was the head of the county's financing arm, the Bergen County Improvement Agency. He resigned in 2010 and a year later pleaded guilty to wire fraud charges, admitting he used his position at the county to falsify loan applications.
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Muller will pay nearly $250,000 in restitution to creditors and $100,000 to the government, northjersey.com reported.
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