Chanhassen broker pleads guilty to racketeering in $2.5 million mortgage fraud case

Updated: April 7, 2008 - 10:58 PM

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The owner of a Chanhassen mortgage brokerage has pleaded guilty to a Hennepin County charge of racketeering in a $2.5 million mortgage fraud case.

The county attorney's office said that Celeste Skaar of Orono will be sentenced after she cooperates on other pending cases against figures in the alleged scam. She pleaded to one of eight charges against her.

Skaar was permanently barred from originating or serving mortgages by the Minnesota Department of Commerce last year after the county charges were filed. The license of her brokerage, New Day Capital, also was revoked.

Eight charges each still are pending against Scott R. Rosenlund of Chaska, president of 10Spring Homes, a home-building and development company, and Shinon Lindberg of Greenwood, who allegedly recruited straw buyers for the properties.

The county alleges that the scheme involved buying properties and then reselling them to a straw buyer, often on the same day, for inflated prices. Skaar was accused of arranging the mortgages.

STEVE BRANDT