Former J.P. Morgan Chase banker sentenced for role in commercial bribery, tax-evasion scheme
SAN DIEGO – A former J.P. Morgan Chase banker was ordered today to serve six months in prison for her role in a commercial bribery and tax-evasion scheme.
While handing down the sentence to 51-year-old Lynda Sanabria in a San Diego courtroom, U.S. District Judge Roger Benitez also ordered her to undergo six months of post-incarceration home confinement and to pay about $40,000 in restitution to the IRS.
Sanabria, a resident of Rockwall, Texas, pleaded guilty in October to accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes while she was employed at Chase in return for selling mortgage loans to her preferred customers on the secondary mortgage market.
Sanabria also admitted that between 2004 and 2010 she used her position and influence at Chase to ensure that her preferred customers won their bids to purchase the loans.
One of Sanabria’s preferred customers was Israel Hechter, the owner of San Diego-based mortgage investment firms Ocean 18 LLC and Note Tracker Corp.
Sanabria would provide Hechter with confidential information about competitors’ bids and about the loans Chase offered for sale. In exchange, Hechter paid Sanabria a fixed payment of up to $300 per loan, which over time totaled at least $210,000 in bribes, according to prosecutors.
On one occasion in 2004, Hechter delivered around $70,000, which Sanabria used to buy property in Lake Havasu, Arizona.
By 2008, Hechter stopped reporting the illegal payments to the Internal Revenue Service, and Sanabria stopped paying taxes on the illegal income, court documents state.
Hechter later referred to the payments as birthday gifts or consulting fees in order to disguise the fact that he was paying for influence over her decisions at Chase.
In Hechter’s guilty plea in September, he admitted paying $1 million in bribes to Sanabria and other bankers at GMAC Mortgage and National City Bank.
In order to make sure Hechter’s bids were successful, the bankers corrupted the process by altering bids, rejecting other bids and erasing or ignoring bids from qualified competitors, authorities alleged.
The bankers also rigged the bidding process by supplying Hechter with confidential information about prices and competing bids.
Robert Moreno of GMAC was one of the other bankers to receive bribes from Hechter. Moreno pleaded guilty in October 2014, admitting that he accepted more than $1 million in bribes from Hechter and other GMAC customers, including Ben Keisari, who also pleaded guilty to participating in the bribery scheme.
After purchasing the mortgages from the various financial institutions, Hechter pooled the loans and sold shares of the pools to investors, usually friends and family members including his father, Zeev Hechter, his brother, Amir Hechter, and his employee, Jack Prober, each of whom also invested in the
pools.
After purchasing the loans, Ocean 18, LLC would service them and collect monthly payments from the borrowers, or would initiate foreclosure proceedings when the borrowers defaulted.
The investors made money when borrowers made payments, sold the properties, or after foreclosure and resale.
Zeev Hechter, Amir Hechter, and Prober each also pleaded guilty and admitted that they participated in the bribery on behalf of Ocean 18.
Both Prober and Amir Hechter admitted writing personal checks to the bankers in order to assist the bankers in evading taxes on the illegal income.
Zeev Hechter admitted hand-delivering about $330,000 in cash to GMAC banker Moreno.
Zeev Hechter met Moreno on New York City street corners and at Zeev
Hechter’s car wash, where Zeev Hechter would hand Moreno a bag containing tens of thousands of dollars in cash. The money was paid in this way so that Moreno could avoid reporting the income to the IRS, and evade paying income taxes.
Sanabria was the third defendant sentenced in the case. In March, Benitez sentenced Zeev Hechter to six months in custody, a $50,000 fine and $165,000 in restitution.
Benitez ordered Amir Hechter on May 11 to serve 18 months in prison for his role in the conspiracy, and ordered him to pay a $25,000 fine and restitution of $63,474.
Israel Hechter, Robert Moreno and Prober are scheduled to be sentenced Aug. 3. Another defendant, Ben Keisari of Woodland Hills, is scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 8. Each of these defendants will also be sentenced by Benitez.
“These defendants manipulated a fragile market at a critical time in our country’s efforts to recover from the financial crisis,” U.S. Attorney Laura Duffy said. “We will continue to root out corporate corruption and vigorously pursue those who abuse their positions for personal profit.”
