A Guyanese man has been sentenced to more than 21 years in federal prison for his role as ringleader of a multimillion-dollar Florida mortgage fraud scheme.
A federal judge also ordered 56-year-old Ravindranauth "Ravi" Roopnarine to pay more than $9 million in restitution to the defrauded banks and lenders. Three other people have also been sent to prison in the scheme.
Federal prosecutors said in a news release Monday that the scam involved about 150 residential properties in Indian River, Orange and Miami-Dade counties.
The group recruited mainly Guyanese residents of Florida and other states to act as straw buyers on fraudulent mortgage loan applications, leading to issuance of more than $50 million in fraudulent loans.
Roopnarine was convicted by a jury of three fraud charges in March.
