Woman accused of loan fraud

A Newport Beach woman is scheduled to be arraigned today on a dozen charges that she is the mastermind of a mortgage fraud scheme that ripped banks off of more than $3.6 million.

Mailan Thu Tran, 45, of Newport Coast, is charged with 11 counts of grand theft and one count of conspiracy to commit grand theft with sentencing enhancements for the crimes of making banks lose more than $2.5 million.

She faces up to 14 years and eight months in prison if convicted on all charges.

Authorities claim that Tran, who owned Money Lending One in Westminster, was the force behind a five-person, three-property scheme where multiple mortgages were taken out on each property.

Homes in Corona, Rosemead and Fountain Valley all had several mortgages taken out on them because banks were given applications with false or missing information.

On Oct. 2, 2006, authorities said Tran and Cuc Huong Doan, 37, of Santa Ana, took out a $250,000 loan from Bank of America for Doan’s Corona home. The pair already had a mortgage on the home and in their application put in a fake job title and salary for Doan. Two days later, they did it again for the same home, this time at Wells Fargo. They made off with more than $500,000 for that property, prosecutors said.

Between February 2005 and 2007, officials claim Tran and Nafees Quidwai, 54, of Fountain Valley, did the same routine on Quidwai’s home and with five banks. Bankers West Funding Corporation, California National Bank, Wells Fargo, Bank of America and Washington Mutual all gave the pair mortgages totaling about $2 million in cash, checks and wire transfers.

Tran is accused of doing a similar scam with Trieu Thi Nguyen, 59, of Rosemead. The pair took out four mortgages on Nguyen’s home totaling about $1.5 million, prosecutors claim.

An investigation by bank officials turned up the discrepancies on the bank loan applications, and a follow-up investigation by the FBI led to the charges by the Orange County district attorney’s office.

Tran, Quidwai and Sabhia Quidwai are being held in lieu of $500,000. Warrants have been issued for Nguyen and Doan’s arrests.