24 indicted in San Diego for mortgage scam

SAN DIEGO, April 7 (UPI) -- An indictment unsealed in San Diego Tuesday charges 24 people with taking part in widespread mortgage fraud conspiracy.

The U.S. Justice Department said the racketeering charges involve 220 properties that had sales prices totaling more than $100 million. The alleged conspiracy ran from January 2005 to at least April 2008, authorities said.

The two dozen suspects allegedly committed wire fraud, bank fraud and money laundering, the U.S. attorney's office said.

The lead defendants accused of being of running the illegal enterprise are Darnell Bell, a member of the Lincoln Park street gang who goes by the nickname D-Bell, Michael Ivy, Stanley Gentry and Billie Bishop, the federal prosecutors said.

The indictment alleges the defendants schemed to defraud mortgage lenders and to obtain money and property by false and fraudulent means. They allegedly used multiple real estate businesses, including the Ivy House Inc., the Real Estate Center of Southern California and the Real Estate Center of La Mesa, to facilitate the fraudulent purchase of real estate.