Three Individuals Arrested For Loan Fraud

Press Release

US Dept. of Justice
District of Puerto Rico


May 29, 2015

SAN JUAN, P.R. – Yesterday, a Federal grand jury returned a three-count indictment charging Alejandro Enrique Mayendía-Blanco, Nell N. Blanco-Casanovas (mother of Alejandro) and Orlando Mayendía-Díaz (father of Alejandro) for false statements in loan applications, announced Rosa Emilia Rodríguez-Vélez, United States Attorney for the District of Puerto Rico. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Homeland Security Investigations (ICE HSI) is in charge of the investigation. The indictment was unsealed today and the defendants were arrested.

These charges stem from schemes used by Alejandro Mayendía-Blanco and his co-defendants to obtain money from mortgage lending institutions. The settlement statements for the loans charged all indicate that the buyers (the parents) provided a payment on the day of the closing. However, per the bank records, Mayendía-Blanco refunded his parents either the same day of the transaction or the following day, using the funds obtained from the bank as seller’s proceeds. Mayendía-Blanco’s parents defaulted on the charged loans.

On or about May 24, 2007, the defendants herein and others known and unknown to the Grand Jury, aiding and abetting each other, knowingly made material false statements to First Equity Mortgage Bankers, Inc. (FEMBI), in connection with a loan application to obtain a mortgage loan in the amount of $1,320,000.00, which was to be assigned, sold, and transferred to First Bank of Puerto Rico, a federally insured financial institution.

The false statements include, but are not limited to the following: the HUD Settlement Statement Form states that Nell N. Blanco-Casasnovas (the borrower) provided $314,267.27 as cash from borrower, when in truth and in fact, as the defendants well knew, such statement was false in that Alejandro E. Mayendía-Blanco (seller), refunded Nell N. Blanco-Casasnovas on or about May 25, 2007, with the funds he obtained as the seller’s proceeds, thus making the loan proceeds the true source of the funds.

Counts two and three of the indictment charge Mayendía-Blanco and his father Mayendía-Díaz with false statements in loan applications for two loans in the amount of $140,000.00 and $148,000.00. They used the same scheme described above.

The case is being investigated by ICE-HSI and prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Mariana E. Bauzá-Almonte. If found guilty, defendants are facing a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison.


Indictments contain only charges and are not evidence of guilt.  Defendants are presumed to be innocent unless and until proven guilty. The investigations are ongoing.