Feds: Woman obtained 27 Gary homes through fraud

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BY JOE CARLSON
jcarlson@nwitimes.com
219.662.5339 | Thursday, January 10, 2008 | (18 comment(s))

HAMMOND | A Merrillville mortgage broker has pleaded not guilty to charges she used fraudulent information on credit applications to persuade banks to loan her clients more than $1 million to buy 27 homes, nearly all in Gary.

Tameka Bryant, 35, of Lynwood, appeared in court Wednesday on 14 counts of fraud. In addition to the mortgage fraud charges, prosecutors say Bryant used someone else's Social Security number on loan forms at a jewelry store and elsewhere.

Bryant's case is only the latest in a series of indictments involving mortgage and identity fraud in Gary.

Court records say Bryant is married to James Clark, a convicted drug trafficker who was receiving large shipments of cocaine for distribution in Gary.

As part of the same indictment, Clark pleaded guilty to misusing a Social Security number.

Bryant's indictment says she deposited her own money into her clients' bank accounts to boost their creditworthiness and generated fake identities and employment records for them.

The indictment says Bryant worked with Clark and two other people to obtain loans through her two brokerage businesses, Guarantee Mortgage and Challenge Mortgage, both of which had offices at 6010 Broadway in Merrillville. Phone numbers there were disconnected Wednesday.

Another person who Bryant allegedly worked with is Anthony K. McDonald, who was charged in November with buying 10 homes in Gary through a mortgage firm identified at the time only as "Company A."

Although McDonald's income never rose above $20,000 between 2003 and 2005, fraudulent mortgage applications he submitted through Bryant's company persuaded three lenders to loan him nearly $500,000 for Gary real estate in that time, the indictment says.

All 10 homes listed in the McDonald indictment also are listed in the Bryant indictment.

McDonald is scheduled for trial next month on 14 counts of wire and mail fraud.

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Tomeka Hughes Mohead wrote on Sep 11, 2008 7:34 AM:

" Please have mercy on my friend and sister she was only trying to help the broke down city. No one would want to purchase a home from Gary,Ind. She was just trying to help the residents there in the small city. "

jameka clark wrote on Mar 19, 2008 8:49 AM:

" yall don't know my step mom so yall can't judge her she was trying to do something nice for that broke down city "

RUDE TRADER wrote on Jan 28, 2008 11:12 PM:

" WOW!! POOR TAMEKA, SOUNDS LIKE SHE WAS HELPING PEOPLE.. SHE DID A MILLION IN ALLEDGE FRAUD, WHAT ABOUT THE RUDE TRADER THAT DID 7 BILLION IN FRAUD IN FRANCE ,THE FEDS HAD EMERGENCY RATE REDUCTION TO COVER THERE BUTS ON WALL STREET AND ASIAN ALLIEDS , LETS GET REAL !!!!! STAY ON THE BIG BOYS WITH THE RECORD BILLIONS FRAUD, LEAVE THE LITTLE PAWNS ALONE !! COME ON !GET REAL!!!! "

rustcity wrote on Jan 10, 2008 10:41 PM:

" Was it the homestead or the bankruptcy exemption that Tameka claimed for each house? "

SNAFU wrote on Jan 10, 2008 10:19 PM:

" Gary is experiencing gentrification. The nearness to the Chicago market, the infrastructure built by the steel mills,
dilapidated but well constructed houses all adds up to a gold mine for rehabbers / investors. Where you have large temptation, you will find white collar crime. Be it in Gary, Dubai or Chicago's Gold Coast. Maybe the investors should run background checks on the buyer's? Before the fact.
"

to all of the above wrote on Jan 10, 2008 9:17 PM:

" Maybe all you non Gary residents should learn how to read or try to understand what your reading. It is very wrong what she did,
but she was helping other people get loans by putting her own money into their accounts and giving the creditors false info and ss #'s allowing people with bad credit to get finaced. shes not doing anything different then what your local business owners are doing in your communitys, they just haven't got caught yet. "

What wrote on Jan 10, 2008 7:05 PM:

" Gary has some nice neighborhoods? Where?! The taxes are high because there are so many delapidated areas which makes anyone with a half decent house pay huge taxes to make up for all the crappy areas. Most of Gary looks like a bomb went off. Who really wants to live there if they don't have to? Everyone is always saying they would sell, but NO ONE wants to buy there. Mayor McCheese can continue to wear his rose colored glasses and live in fantasy land, but the rest of us live in reality. Gary needs to be bulldozed! "

SICK AND TRIED wrote on Jan 10, 2008 4:41 PM:

" MAYOR WONT SAY THAT BAD THINGS ARE HAPPENING, WONDER WHY "

sense wrote on Jan 10, 2008 3:51 PM:

" This does not make sense. How can she borrow that much money? Inside help? "

Too Funny wrote on Jan 10, 2008 3:02 PM:

" Committing fraud for what?! Homes in GARY! Who in their right mind would want to purchase a home in Gary? Let alone,27 of them..... "

Those who can do :( wrote on Jan 10, 2008 2:54 PM:

" This type of scams are going on all across the nation! "

DANNY DEE wrote on Jan 10, 2008 12:55 PM:

" ONCE AGAIN A PERSON WHO (APPARENTLY) HAS NOT BEEN TO GARY BUT FEELS THE NEED TO MAKE NEGATIVE COMMENTS ABOUT THE CITY...IN MENTAL HEALTH TERMS THAT'S CALLED TRANSFERRING YOUR ISSUES...GARY DOES HAVE SOME FINE NEIGHBORHOODS BUT THE PERCEPTION IS THAT THE CITY DOES NOT HAVE GOOD AFFORDABLE HOUSING...IF YOU DON'T LIVE HERE THEN JUST TAKE CARE OF YOUR COMMUNITIES...OF COURSE THE MORE BAD THINGS YOU SAY ABOUT GARY THE MORE WE WILL WORK TO CORRECT OUR COMMUNITY...WHILE YOU REMAIN IN DENIAL OF YOUR COMMUNITIES DYSFUNCTIONS... "

Rudy wrote on Jan 10, 2008 11:24 AM:

" Gary is not a fraudulent city. The fraud is caused by domestic issues. "

Linda Cox wrote on Jan 10, 2008 9:41 AM:

" Gary is in such bad shape,they need to get rid of all the slums lords then build new home and then maybe you won,t have all this fraud. "

In the KNOW wrote on Jan 10, 2008 9:12 AM:

" Gee, that's $37,037 each she probably made a whopping $50,000.00 off all of those transactions! I hope it was worthing going to jail! Can't wait to see the other crum-bums are out there. "

Ripped Off wrote on Jan 10, 2008 9:03 AM:

" I would think you could buy several thousand homes in Gary with a million, she got ripped off. Did she claim to have filed bankruptcy to escape paying property taxes on those gems? "

john boy wrote on Jan 10, 2008 9:00 AM:

" Just another case of mortage fraud crimes.
The Slum Lords of Gary. "

Shocking wrote on Jan 10, 2008 7:14 AM:

" I didn't know you could buy 27 homes for $1 million. What a great bargain! "

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