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Record Prison Sentence Given in Slavic Village Mortgage Fraud

Posted: Wednesday, May 19, 2010

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A Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court judge has given a mortgage broker 14 years in prison for his role in a $5.8 million dollar fraud case in Cleveland's hard hit Slavic Village neighborhood. ideastream's Mhari Saito reports.

The story of Mark Kellogg, the mortgage broker that took out Slavic Village, is one that could embody the fast and easy era of the subprime loan: The hot dog stand owner turned mortgage broker who drove a white hummer and passed out business cards saying, “Where there’s a will there’s a way, let’s get you qualified today.” The entrepreneur who helped a dozen buyers buy groups of houses by faking their incomes. But in court, Kellogg presented a different character. He said he was shown how to exaggerate loan applications by employees of subprime lenders. He told a judge he was just a broker for sellers interested in turning a profit and subprime lenders who just wanted more loans.

Mark Kellogg:I didn’t set out to be a greedy person or try to be slick or cunning in this particular business at all your honor. I tried to do everything by the book.

None of that mattered in the end as Judge Ronald Suster sentenced the 39-year-old to 14 years in prison, a record sentence for the two and a half-year-old Cuyahoga County Mortgage Fraud Task Force. A relative sobbed as Kellogg was led away from the courtroom. Slavic Village resident Greg Knapp helped lead the neighborhood group that dug up the sales data that led to the sentence.

Greg Knapp: He was part of a conspiracy that created a lot of havoc in our neighborhood and it’s going to take us years for us to fully bounce back from that.

The sellers in the deal, a group of Chinese immigrant relatives, have also pleaded guilty and will be sentenced next Thursday. Mhari Saito, 90.3.

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