Former Willingboro mayor is found guilty of mortgage fraud
A federal sjury convicted Nathaniel Anderson, who is still on council, and an associate on Wednesday.
The former mayor of Willingboro Township and a business associate were found guilty by a federal jury of mortgage fraud, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in New Jersey said Wednesday.
Nathaniel Anderson, 59, who is still a town councilman in Willingboro, and Chrisone D. Anderson, 58, of Sicklerville, were each convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud affecting a financial institution, one count of bank fraud, and two counts of making a false statement on a mortgage application, said Senior Counsel Philip Lamparello from the prosecutor’s office.
The jury deliberated for less than three hours after a two-week trial before U.S. District Judge Robert Kirsch in federal court in Trenton, Lamparello said.
Sentencing is scheduled for June 1. “Though we respect the jury’s decision, we plan to appeal this conviction to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals,” Troy A. Archie, attorney for Chrisone Anderson, said in an email.
Anderson was represented by federal public defenders who could not be reached Wednesday night.
The Andersons, who are not related, conspired to save Nathaniel Anderson’s home, which was facing foreclosure in 2015, by orchestrating a fraudulent short sale to Chrisone Anderson, prosecutors said.
The scheme involved Chrisone Anderson posing as a buyer of the home and claiming that Nathaniel Anderson would no longer live there so that his mortgage lender would forgive the rest of his loan.
The fraudulent misrepresentations included that Chrisone Anderson would occupy the home as her primary residence, prosecutors said.
Nathaniel Anderson’s problems with his residency began in 2009 as he and his then-wife fell behind on mortgage payments, prosecutors said.
The couple divorced, but Anderson wanted to keep his home through a short sale. That’s a process by which a mortgage lender agrees to write off the remaining debt of a mortgage holder in default — provided the holder can arrange a sale of the property to dispense with most of the remaining debt.