Carlin Joubert, 55, has been sentenced to a total of 24 months in federal prison for her role in providing Social Security numbers as well as fraudulent drivers’ licenses and Social Security cards to individuals who used them to obtain fraudulent home loans, United States Attorney José Angel Moreno announced today.
At a hearing this morning, United States District Judge Nancy Atlas sentenced Joubert to 12 months for the conspiracy to produce false identification documents conviction and a consecutive 12-month prison term for the aggravated identity theft conviction. Judge Atlas also ordered Joubert to pay restitution in the amount of $580,125 and serve a three-year-term of supervised release upon completion of her prison term. Joubert has been permitted to remain on bond pending the issuance of an order to surrender at a Bureau of Prisons facility to be designated in the near future where she will serve her sentence.
Joubert pleaded guilty to the two felony charges in November 2008. According to the public record in this case, Joubert operated Edington and Associates in southwest Houston, which held itself out as a credit repair business. In addition to ordinary credit repair services, however, Joubert gave clients the option of paying more to obtain a new Social Security number. With this option, Joubert would provide the client with a new Social Security number, which typically belonged to a child so that the credit history would be clean. The children did not know their Social Security numbers were being used. Joubert would then add the Social Security number to existing lines of credit so a positive credit history would be created for the number. After a few months, Joubert would advise the clients that the new Social Security number could be used because a positive credit score had been generated. In addition to providing the number, Joubert would also obtain for her clients a fraudulent Social Security card listing the client’s name and the Social Security number assigned to the child.
Joubert provided a number to an individual who used it to purchase a home in the Montrose area during 2007 as part of a mortgage fraud scheme. In this scheme, straw buyers purchased homes at inflated values so that large sums -typically exceeding $100,000 – could be diverted to a company called CLC holdings, owned by Craig Curtis. For another individual involved in the scheme, Joubert provided a fraudulent Social Security card listing a fictitious name and the Social Security number of a child. In addition, Joubert provided Curtis with a child’s Social Security number, which he used in applying for a loan to purchase an Aston-Martin.
The eight other defendants charged in this mortgage fraud conspiracy, who include loan processors, an appraiser, recruiters and a straw buyer, were also sentenced to terms of imprisonment. Curtis, the organizer of the scheme, received more than $1 million in fraudulent proceeds and was sentenced to 12 years in prison.
Charges were later filed in the Southern District of Texas against John Hill, of Tennessee, and Alan Magodoro, of California, the individuals who supplied Joubert with the children’s Social Security numbers. Hill pleaded guilty on Feb. 25, 2010, to conspiring to misuse Social Security numbers and is awaiting sentencing. On April 15, 2010, Magodoro also pleaded guilty and is scheduled for sentencing on July 1, 2010.
Source: U.S. Attorney’s Office, Southern District of Texas