Three Palm Beach County Residents Sentenced for Mortgage Fraud

Three Palm Beach County residents were sentenced today for their participation in a mortgage fraud scheme totaling more than $6.5 million dollars

Defendant Lauren Jasky, 30, was sentenced today to 3 years in prison, to be followed by 5 years of supervised release. 

On December 1, defendant Ralph Michel, a/k/a Ralph Duverneau, 36, was sentenced to two and a half years in prison, to be followed by 4 years of supervised release. 

On November 19, defendant Berry Louidort, 27, was sentenced to 37 months in prison, to be followed by 5 years of supervised release. 

All three defendants previously pled guilty to conspiracy to commit bank fraud and mail fraud.  Defendants Michel and Louidort also pled guilty to a money laundering charge.


According to court documents and court testimony, this investigation began with an audit conducted by the Florida Office of Financial Regulation into 24 sub-prime mortgage loans initiated by Compass Mortgage Service, Inc. (“Compass Mortgage”), located in Boca Raton

The initial audit revealed that the loans included excessively large fees paid to defendants Berry Louidort and Ralph Michel.  The fees, ranging from $29,000 to $650,000, were described as marketing and/or assignment fees.  In fact, however, the fees were kickbacks to defendants Louidort and Michel based on inflated sales prices.  The audit also revealed that the majority of the suspect loans were originated by defendant Lauren Jasky, Senior Vice President of Compass Mortgage.


To execute the scheme, the defendants fraudulently bought and sold residential property in Palm Beach County. Defendants Louidort and Michel received large assignment and marketing fees and Jasky received mortgage brokerage fees. The defendants prepared fraudulent loan applications for the purchasers and submitted them to the lenders. The applications included materially false information about the borrowers’ employment verification, income, funds on deposit, and rent history.