newjerseynewsroom.com

BY ALICIA CRUZ

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

A Belleville woman accused of participating in a mortgage fraud scheme that bilked Wells Fargo Bank of more than $500,000, pleaded guilty September 15 in Newark Federal court.

Kim S. Morris aka Kim S. Morris-Burchell, who was working as a part-time court clerk for Essex County at the time of her arrest, entered a guilty plea before U.S. District Judge Stanley R. Chesler to one count each of bank fraud and structuring, said U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman.

Morris, defended by Bloomfield attorney Cassandra Savoy, admitted that in January 2008, she applied for a mortgage loan from Wells Fargo Bank by completing a fraudulent Uniform Residential Loan Application in order to secure a property located in Upper Montclair.

On the application, Morris falsified the name of her employer, the length of her employment and inflated her income. Based upon the bogus information provided by the defendant, bank officials authorized a home loan for $624,000. The structuring charge to which Morris pleaded guilty came because of 110 money orders, totaling $84,855.55, which the 42-year-old passed from March 2008 through June 2009 to pay her mortgage loan.

According to Cornell University Law School, Titles 31 and 18, sections 5324 and 2 of the United States Code, financial institutions are required to record certain information and verify identification whenever issuing or selling money order in excess of $3,000. No financial institution may issue or sell a bank check, cashier’s check, traveler’s check, or money order to any individual in connection with a transaction or group of such contemporaneous transactions which involves U.S. currency in amounts or denominations of $3,000 or more unless—

(1) the individual has a transaction account with such financial institution and the financial institution—

(A) verifies that fact through a signature card or other information maintained by such institution in connection with the account of such individual; and

(B) records the method of verification in accordance with regulations which the Secretary of the Treasury shall prescribe;

Prosecutors say Morris purchased the money orders from various financial conduits such as the United States Postal Office, Western Union, and Moneygram for less than $3,000 in order to bypass the banks identification and reporting requirements. Morris faces 30 years in prison and a $1 million fine on the bank fraud charge. The structuring charge carries a maximum prison term of five years and a $250,000 fine. Her sentencing is set for December 14, 2011.