SAN DIEGO (AP) — A San Diego real estate agent and his loan officer wife have been sentenced to three years and five months apiece in prison for directing a mortgage fraud scheme that resulted in more than $10 million in bank losses and scores of foreclosures.
A U.S. attorney’s statement says Eric Elegado and Charmagne Elegado received the sentence in federal court on Thursday, and must return in may for a restitution hearing where they could be ordered to pay back millions.
The couple pleaded guilty in October to conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
Eric Elegado’s face is widely recognized from billboards and bus benches in the San Diego area, and he owned Rolls Royces and Bentleys that he put on display outside real estate seminars and posed with in Facebook pictures.