Massive mortgage fraud alleged

Baldwin resident Vertus Vielot, 35, was one of 17 people indicted last week after a two-year investigation into what is being called the largest mortgage and identity theft scheme in Nassau County history. Vielot was charged under New York’s Organized Crime Control Act with 12 counts of second-degree grand larceny, first-degree scheme to defraud and fourth-degree conspiracy, and faces a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison.

Vielot’s attorney declined to comment.

At a press conference on March 16 in Mineola, Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice said the 17 defendants were charged with more than 100 crimes and of stealing more than $20 million from homeowners, banks and the county government. Fourteen were charged with enterprise corruption, and other charges included grand larceny, scheme to defraud and falsification of business records. Rice said that her office’s Crimes Against Real Estate Unit, which she formed in 2009, uncovered the network. The investigation was called “Operation: Sweet Deal,” and revealed more than 45 acts of alleged fraud.

Rice said that the fraudulent collective has been in operation for nearly six years, under the leadership of Westbury residents James Robert Sweet, 43, and Dwayne Benjamin, 44. She said that 16 people had been arrested over a three-day span, and that one remaining defendant was scheduled to be arraigned on March 16.

“We’ve all seen the financial devastation caused by the collapse of the housing bubble,” Rice said. “We have seen families put out on the street — houses boarded up and entire neighborhoods reduced to virtual ghost towns. And if those struggles aren’t bad enough, here are two men — James Robert Sweet and Dwayne Benjamin — doing whatever is necessary to destroy even more lives, purely for their own financial benefit.”