Mortgage Fraud: 03-30-09 Viktor Kobzar, Camie Byron, Alla Sobol, David Sobel, Indicted

Six people were arrested today following a grand jury indictment for a mortgage fraud scheme that allegedly defrauded more than a dozen banks and mortgage lenders of more than $47 million. The investigation is ongoing and the amount of the fraud will likely increase. The defendants are charged in a 40 count indictment with conspiracy to commit bank, wire and mail fraud, eleven counts of bank fraud, seven counts of mail fraud, eleven counts of wire fraud, four counts of making false statements on loan applications, and seven counts of monetary transactions using criminally derived proceeds. The defendants were involved with three Bellevue, Washington companies: Emerald City Escrow LLC, Nationwide Home Lending LLC, and Kobay Financial Corporation. Four of these defendants will make their initial appearances in U.S. District Court in Seattle at 2:30 this afternoon:

* VIKTOR KOBZAR, 32, of Federal Way, mortgage broker
* CAMIE BYRON, 28, of Renton, loan officer for Kobay and Nationwide
* ALLA SOBOL, 28, of Renton, mortgage broker
* DAVID SOBOL,40, of Issaquah, real estate agent

These two defendants were arrested in Los Angeles and will be scheduled for arraignment at a later date:

* VLADISLAV BAYDOVSKIY, 31, of Bellevue, Washington, mortgage broker
* DONATA BAYDOVSKIY, 28, of Bellevue, part owner Emerald City Escrow

One additional defendant, SANDRA THORPE, 55, of Shoreline, an accountant who falsified income statements and employment verification letters will be arraigned April 9, 2009.