CATEGORY:CONVICTED ------------------------ INSIDE GRENADA WEDNESDAY August 22,2007 Brooklyn, August 20, 2007 – Kings County District Attorney Charles J. Hynes today announced the sentencing of Delbert Baptiste, 45, to three to nine years in prison for a mortgage fraud scheme totaling more than two million dollars. Baptiste pleaded guilty to Grand Larceny in the Second Degree. Baptiste used the property at 600 St. Marks Place in Crown Heights to defraud several mortgage companies. He repeatedly recruited acquaintances to pose as purchasers and allow their credit to be used in order to obtain mortgages in their names. These individuals were merely straw buyers and Baptiste, in fact, retained control of the property and resold it several times at inflated values, thus realizing a profit. For their participation in the scheme, straw buyers received a payment from Baptiste. Between June 1 and October 29, 2003, Baptiste arranged to obtain a $512,000 loan from US Mortgage property and purchase the property. The straw buyer earned $10,000; Baptiste earned $69,000. In 2003 and 2005, Baptiste again arranged for the fraudulent sale of the property at inflated values, thus obtaining several additional fraudulent mortgages, totaling $1.5 million. The case was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorneys Michael Ryan and Laura Neubauer. Michael Vecchione is Chief of the Rackets Division. Contact: Jonah Bruno Article re-printed from Kings County District Attorney's Office (Press Release)