Week in Review : MAJOR EVENTS, IMAGES AND PEOPLE IN ORANGE COUNTY NEWS : MISCELLANY/ NEWSMAKERS AND MILESTONES
A Laguna Hills businessman pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles to arranging a complex real estate scheme that caused a consortium of banks to lose $21 million.
John (Skip) Chodak, 43, pleaded guilty to six counts of wire fraud and one count of interstate transportation of funds obtained by fraud.
Another participant in the scheme, James Michael Fairbanks, 28, of Anaheim pleaded guilty to three counts of wire fraud.
Chodak and Fairbanks are among nine men accused of setting up an elaborate scheme to borrow $21 million from more than two dozen banks and savings and loan associations across the country.
The defendants, who submitted inflated appraisals and false documentation on one piece of property in Chatsworth and one in Newhall, told the lending institutions involved that the borrowed money would be used to develop the land.
A federal grand jury found that the defendants pocketed most of the money and never repaid the loans.
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