A San Jose woman was arrested Tuesday on charges she conspired to defraud mortgage
lenders by falsifying borrowers' financial backgrounds. Melissa Renee Duran-Casaus, 32, also is charged with three
counts of grand theft from some of the lenders for the amounts of the real estate loans that were paid out based on the
false information she submitted to them.
According to court documents, she allegedly worked for a local insurance broker when she was asked by a real estate agent to handle employment verification inquiries from lenders in return for payment. Prosecutors say she falsely stated that the loan applicants had worked at the insurance brokerage for a number of years and were earning relatively high wages. If convicted of all the charges Duran-Casaus faces up to seven years and four months in prison.
