A federal grand jury indicted Patricia Omondi, age 38, and her husband Boureima Sanfo, age 47, both of Woodbridge, Virginia, today for interstate transportation of property obtained by fraud, money laundering and obstruction of justice in connection with a scheme to defraud residential lot buyers, announced United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein.
According to the 13-count indictment, Omondi was the president of Raycha Homes, also known as Construction Consulting and Management (CCM), a home builder located on Old Bridge Road in Woodbridge, Virginia. Sanfo was a loan officer for CCM and Allstate Mortgage. From November 2004 to December 2005, the defendants met with individuals and promised to build homes for them on the lots of their choice. They allegedly drove individuals to view several parcels of land in Prince George’s County to select the lot, provided copies of design drawings of homes, provided fictitious letters on the letterhead of a mortgage company falsely representing that the individuals had been pre-approved for mortgages and falsely stated that CCM had obtained permits to begin construction of their houses.
The indictment alleges that the defendants caused individuals to enter into a contract with CCM for the construction and purchase of a house and to make regular payments towards the down payment. No homes, however, were constructed and no lots were in fact purchased. Under this scheme, Omondi and Sanfo obtained more than $200,000 from at least seven victims, which they deposited in their bank account in Virginia.
In October 2006, a federal grand jury was investigating whether the defendants were committing fraud in connection with their home building operations. The indictment alleges that the defendants obstructed the investigation by providing the grand jury with studies had purportedly been done in 2005 regarding the feasibility of constructing houses on lots selected by purchasers, when in facts the feasibility studies were completed in September 2006.
The indictment seeks forfeiture of $202,435. he defendants face a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison followed by 3 years of supervised release and a $250,000 fine for each count. Their initial appearances have not been scheduled.
An indictment is not a finding of guilt. An individual charged by indictment is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty at some later criminal proceedings.
United States Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein praised the U.S. Secret Service for its investigative work and thanked Assistant U.S. Attorneys Bryan E. Foreman and Michele Sartori, who are prosecuting the case.