Former Most Beautiful Girl in Nigeria, Sandra Petgrave and her husband have been sentenced to jail in the United States for their involvement in mortgage fraud.
Petgrave won the MBGN pageant in 1992 and moved to the US where she and her husband, Chiedu ‘George’ Chukwuka, started a family and had six children – four girls and two boys.
In the statement published by the FBI, the couple were tried and indicted on fraud charges. Chukwuka was reportedly involved in fraudulent mortgage deals and property-flipping schemes that cost financial institutions over $5.8 million, between 2006 and 2011.
According to the charges presented in court:
“Chukwuka along with his co-defendants and co-conspirators, recruited straw buyers to purchase homes at a discounted price, typically a bank-owned or distressed property. The group then recruited a second straw buyer to purchase the same home at a dramatically inflated price. In turn, Chukwuka, his co-defendants and co-conspirators applied for an acquisition loan for the second straw buyer, supporting the loan application with false income, fake employment, and fraudulent net worth data.
The group profited from their scheme by pocketing the acquisition loan proceeds paid by the victim bank to the straw seller (who was the straw purchaser in the first transaction). The amount of profit was the difference between the price paid by the straw purchaser in the first transaction and the price paid by the straw purchaser in the second transaction, less transaction costs. Since none of the straw purchasers made any significant loan payments, the targeted properties usually went into foreclosure, resulting in over $5.8 million in actual losses to financial institutions between 2006 and 2011.”
Chukwuka has been sentenced to serve nine years in prison and three years of supervised release. He is also ordered to pay a restitution in the amount of $5,868,243.80. Hi wife, Sandra Petgrave, pleaded guilty to being a co-conspirator, and was sentenced to one year and six months in prison, plus three years of supervised release. She has been ordered to pay $1,051,970.77 in restitution.
Source: FBI/Bellanaija
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