Minneapolis woman found guilty in mortgage fraud ring

Updated: January 28, 2010 - 9:12 PM

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A Minneapolis woman was convicted Thursday for her part in a $2.8 million mortgage fraud ring.

A Hennepin County District Court jury found Susan E. Newell guilty of 12 counts of theft by swindle and one count of racketeering. The jury also found aggravating factors present on all counts. Her 2008 trial on the same counts ended in a mistrial.

Her partner, Edward L. Boler, pleaded guilty in May to one count of racketeering and one count of theft by swindle.

The prosecution grew out of an arson finding by county investigator Glen Miller after a house burned in 2007 in Brooklyn Center. Miller found that the property was one of six in foreclosure and one of seven that had been purchased in a short time by Brian White.

That led investigators to Demetrius Winston, who bought five properties in a two-week period. They say that Newell, 39, recruited the buyers and that Boler obtained mortgage loans based on fraudulent applications. Newell, Boler and each buyer split the proceeds resulting from obtaining a mortgage greater than the property's cost, according to the complaint.

Prosecutors charged that Boler and his U.S. Mortgage Investments Richfield fraudulently obtained loans totaling $2.8 million on 12 properties, eight of them in Minneapolis and one each in Richfield, St. Paul, Champlin and Brooklyn Center.

VINCE TUSS