Joel Hendon

DOJ Indicts 3 Men On Conspiracy to Commit Bribery and Wire Fraud On VA


Posted: Tuesday, January 24, 2012

by Joel Hendon
http://hebronics.org/index.html

A news release by the U.S. Department of Justice was issued on January 17 in Rockford, Illinois with notification of indictments against Ryan J. Piana, Ronald B. Hurst and Bryant A. Carbonell, charging them with conspiracy to commit bribery and wire fraud during the period from January 2006 through September 2007. The three are also charged with committing bribery and wire fraud during that period.

Ryan J. Piana was formerly employed as residential sales manager for the Ocwen Loan Servicing, LLC based in West Palm Beach in Florida. Court documents show that Ocwen was contracted with the Veterans Administration to manage foreclosures on properties with mortgages guaranteed by the VA. Their contract was to make any repairs needed to the properties and re-sell them.

The charges developed due to Hurst and Carbonell who were contractors for Ocwen to make the needed repairs abandoned by default be a veteran. They conspired with Piana to funnel the repair work to companies affiliated with them. Piana then recruited other Ocwen employees to enter the scheme. He then paid them to join the scheme, from funds he received from Hurst and Carbonell. In all these dealings, numerous wire frauds were sent.

On December 3, 2010, another former employee of Ocwen, pleaded guilty to wire fraud in U.S. District Court in Orlando, Florida under the same contract with the VA.

The wire fraud charges carry a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. The bribery charges carry a maximum of 15 years in prison and the conspiracy charges carry a maximum penalty of 5 years in prison.

The maximum fine for each charge is $250,000. For wire fraud and conspiracy, the maximum fine may be increased to twice the gain derived from the crime or twice the loss suffered by the victims of the crime, if either of those amounts is greater than the statutory maximum fine. For bribery, the maximum fine may be increased to three times the value of the bribes, if that amount is greater than the statutory maximum fine. (DOJ News Release: January 17, 2012)

Indictments are only formal charges made against persons and they are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
Author Biography: Joel Hendon was born near Gadsden Alabama. He attended public schools in Cherokee County, Alabama and after serving a tour of duty in the U.S. Army during the Korean War, attended Jacksonville State University, majoring in Business Administration. He became a Christian in 1948, and although he followed secular work as a career and retired from Allied Signal Aerospace, he is an avid student of the Holy Bible and related works as well as biblical history. He has an extensive website of conservative religious and political articles.http://hebronics.org/index.html

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