Sharon man latest to be sent away for role in Boston-area mortgage-fraud ring

Andre Junior Lamerique, 26, earned a five-year federal prison sentence today for his part in an effort to wring more than $10 million out of lenders in bogus transactions on properties across Boston, the US Attorney's office in Boston reports.

Lamerique is the ninth of eleven people charged in the case to either plead or be found guilty. Lamerique pleaded guilty last year to 33 counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy.

Federal prosecutors charged the eleven recruited "straw" buyers for whom they submitted inflated mortgage bids to mostly out-of-state lenders. The buyers got a fee, then disappeared, leaving the lenders holding properties not worth what they'd just spent for them. Lamerique's role was to recruit the phony buyers and to file the bogus applications for them.

• The indictment against Lamerique and the others

Also see:
Framingham lawyer charged with role in alleged Dorchester condo-flipping scheme.