A Maryland woman has been sentenced to eight and half years in prison for being involved in a real estate scheme that involved homes she didn’t own, seeing homes she didn’t own and forging documents to claim ownership on these foreclosed homes in Prince George’s County.
Qiana Johnson, 34, was sentenced June 15 after having two seaport trial, The Washington Post reported. She was charged with theft greater than $100,000, burglary, producing fake documents and conspiracy to commit theft. She will also have five years of supervised probation in addition to her sentenced prison time.
Prince George’s County State’s Attorney Angela Alsobrooks said in a released statement that Johnson is a financial predator, and “her victims were hardworking people who were facing difficult times in their lives and Ms. Johnson decided to lie, cheat and steal to get what she wanted.”
Prosecutors said that Johnson and Shamika Staggs took ownership, using forged papers, of a home that was owned by a woman who died and turned the home over to the bank and foreclosed on. Johnson and Staggs used a forged deed to sell the property to an investment firm. It was sold for around $200,000.
That money was put into an escrow account, which they later withdrew the money from to use. Stages was charged and pleaded guilty to theft an forgery charges.
Sources:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/crime/woman-sentenced-to-almost-9-years-in-prison-for-her-role-in-md-real-estate-scam/2015/06/15/f71d1e86-139c-11e5-89f3-61410da94eb1_story.html
http://wtop.com/prince-georges-county/2015/06/md-woman-sentenced-for-prince-georges-co-real-estate-scheme/
