Local mortgage broker sentenced in bank fraud

Mortgage broker Viktor Kobzar, 32, of Federal Way, was sentenced Jan. 8 in U.S. District Court in Seattle to five years in prison and three years of supervised release for conspiring to commit bank fraud, mail fraud, wire fraud and filing a false personal income tax return.

Kobzar was a mortgage broker who, with co-defendant Vladislav A. Baydovskiy, operated the brokerage companies Nationwide Home Lending LLC and Kobay Financial Corporation. The pair created a third company, Emerald City Escrow, to close transactions involving fraudulently obtained loans. He was one of six people arrested March 26, 2009, on a grand jury indictment for a mortgage fraud scheme that defrauded more than a dozen banks and mortgage lenders of more than $47 million.

According to records filed in the case the defendants secured, through unqualified purchasers, at least 68 loans, based on false and fraudulent representations. All of the fraudulently obtained loans were closed at Emerald City Escrow. Employees and principals at Kobay and Nationwide prepared and submitted the falsified loan applications and related verification documents to lenders in a scheme to conceal the fact that buyers were otherwise unqualified to obtain purchase money loans, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Employees and principals of Emerald City diverted some of the fraudulently obtained loan proceeds to themselves and others associated with the scheme. False settlement documents were prepared to conceal the diversion from lenders. The defendants are forfeiting to the government a 2004 Lamborghini Gallardo, a 2006 BMW 750, a 2007 BMW X5, a 31-foot Bayliner yacht, and several bank and investment accounts totaling approximately $2.4 million, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

A hearing will be held this month to determine the amount of restitution to be paid to the defendants.

Contact Federal Way Mirror Reporter Jacinda Howard at jhoward@fedwaymirror.com or (253) 925-5565 ext. 5052.

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