Lakeville Man: I'm Guilty of Condo Fraud in Burnsville

Corrected (see below). A Lakeville resident admitted in federal court Monday he defrauded lenders to his Chateau Ridge condo development in Burnsville, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney for Minnesota. 

John Michael Stevens, 47, entered a guilty plea to one count of wire fraud, saying that in 2007, he and others misrepresented where the money from mortgage loans would go.

In one case, he told a lender the loan would pay off a pre-existing mortgage but that wasn't true, and the lender lost $227,712 when the unit was foreclosed on.

Stevens also admitted to arranging that the buyers of four other units would be repaid their earnest money down-payments and closing costs—meanting they purchased the units for less than what was the lenders were led to believe. The total refunded to the buyers of these four units was about $240,500.

The maximum penalty is five years* in federal prison; U.S. District Judge Susan Richard Nelson will decide Stevens' sentence at a future hearing that is not yet scheduled.

Learn more about protecting yourself against mortgage fraud.

*Correction: The original version of this post incorrectly stated that the maximum penalty is 20 years, based on information supplied and later corrected by the U.S. Attorney's office.