Iranian migrants who scammed 7 banks found guilty   17 Jun 2016

Friday 17 June 2016 01:03 PM

Iranian migrants who scammed 7 banks using forged documents, aliases found guilty of fraud

By Jonathan Underhill

June 17 (BusinessDesk) - Three Iranian migrants and a family friend have been found guilty of mortgage fraud after they scammed seven banks using forged documents and aliases in a $9.2 million scheme involving 11 Auckland properties between July 2007 and December 2010.

Eli Devoy, the 47-year-old ringleader for the offending, was found guilty on 20 charges in the District Court at Auckland, having pleaded guilty to four charges prior to trial. The one-time mortgage broker now goes by the name Ellie Stone, and has also used the name Eli Ghorbani and her original name when she came to New Zealand of Elaheh Ghorbani Sarsangi.

Of her brothers, Mehrdad Ghorbani was found guilty of six charges and Mehrzad Ghorbani found guilty of four charges, having pleaded guilty to one charge prior to trial. A third brother, Mehran Ghorbani had pleaded guilty to three charges prior to trial. The brothers had also used multiple names although Judge Brooke Gibson said in his judgment that it wasn't unusual for Persian to changes their names when they migrated to New Zealand, a right they didn't have in Iran.

Nasrin Kardani, a family friend, was found guilty of three charges while Hassan Salarpour, Eli Devoy's brother-in-law, and a friend, Javad Toraby, were found not guilty.

Judge Gibson's judgment says Serious Fraud Office and police officers who executed a search warrant on the Devoy residence in Eastern Beach in 2012 found "a veritable Aladdin's Cave of compromising material in the form of bank statements, loan applications, notes confirming payments of various deposits, a passport and a driver's licence. Many of the documents were forgeries".

The judgment also cites a note from Eli Devoy's ex-husband Warren Devoy entreating her to stay in their marriage: "To make it work I promise to totally stop complaining about fraud if you promise to stop talking as if I am the cause of all your problems". Even though Eli Devoy argued the note referred to a friend of hers, Judge Gibson said her ex-husband "had good reason to be concerned about his wife's activities."

The scheme, or "series of scams", began to unravel in February 2010 when a Bank of New Zealand investigator advised police about some transactions using false documents, while Westpac Banking Corp had begun to investigate another property deal at about the same time. Kiwibank made a complaint to the SFO in November 2011.

SFO director Julie Read said all lenders "should be monitoring this risk and people applying for mortgages should be aware that there are significant penalties for those who do not provide truthful information.”

The defendants are to reappear for sentencing on Aug. 17.

(BusinessDesk)

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