CHICAGO (AP) — A disbarred Naperville attorney has been sentenced to more than four years in federal prison and ordered to pay nearly $240,000 in restitution for her role in a mortgage fraud scheme.
Forty-seven-year-old Avalon Betts-Gaston was convicted last year of two counts of wire fraud for the scheme that bilked lenders and vulnerable homeowners.
Prosecutors say Betts-Gaston and co-defendant Dimona Ross arranged for the submission of false information on mortgage loan documents in four Cook County real estate transactions worth more than $725,000.
The women had operated IJCN Investments, which purportedly helped distressed homeowners refinance their homes to avoid foreclosure. The company was dissolved in 2008 and Betts-Gaston was disbarred in 2012.
Ross pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud and will be sentenced on May 11.
