February 7, 2008

By PATRICK MALONE

A budding real estate mogul whose operation grew beyond his grasp and deteriorated into shady appraisals, forged documents and fraudulent collection of loan proceeds was sentenced Wednesday to 10 years in prison.

In October, District Judge Rosalie Vigna found Maurice Goring, 41, guilty of two counts of racketeering under the Colorado Organized Crime Control Act.

He faced a sentencing range between eight and 24 years in prison for each count. The judge sentenced him to 10 years in prison for each count. The sentences run concurrently. Goring also was ordered to pay a $25,000 fine, the minimum allowed for a COCCA conviction.

Vigna said a long prison term for Goring would hamper his ability to repay his victims. Prosecutors have 90 days to present restitution figures to the court.

Prosecutors said Goring stole or fraudulently obtained mortgage loans totaling about $2 million. They sought a prison sentence in the 12-15 year range.

Goring enlisted acquaintances he met at church to serve as the listed owners on distressed properties he purchased. Goring then pocketed the mortgage loan proceeds, often taking out a second mortgage immediately at closing. He let the houses lapse into foreclosure. Along the way, he ruined the credit of the people who agreed to serve as the registered owners of the homes.

Testimony during Goring's trial exposed cracks in the local mortgage lending process that allowed him to practice fraud.

Alvin Jack Woolford, 57, of Colorado Springs, confessed to manipulating his appraisals to hit the targeted numbers that Goring had set for him. Woolford pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of misdemeanor forgery for the shady appraisals he generated at Goring's urging.

Ivor Hill, an appraiser who was retained as an expert witness for the prosecution, challenged the validity of Woolford's appraisals. Hill testified that such unscrupulous practices detrimentally impact the entire community by artificially inflating home prices. He said the problem persists even with Goring out of the picture.

“Pueblo County is atypical for the country,” Hill testified Wednesday. “The degree of foreclosures and fraudulent appraisals is greater here.”

Hill testified that one mortgage lender recently told him the prevalence of mortgage fraud here is on a par with what could be expected in a city with a population of 1 million. That is approximately 10 times the population of the city of Pueblo.

Denise Tucci, a former real estate closer for a title company admitted during the trial that she had notarized documents for Goring without the signor present. She testified against Goring, and charges against her were dismissed.

Also implicated in Goring's scheme was his former employee and past lover, Judith Whiting, 24.

Whiting testified that she forged and photocopied signatures onto fabricated documents at Goring's urging to create documents that granted him power of attorney over some of the homeowners he had enlisted.

Whiting pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of misdemeanor forgery for her role in the criminal enterprise. She and Woolford received sentences of probation and were ordered not to hold jobs in the mortgage field.

Before he was sentenced, Goring told the judge that he accepts now that he was wrong.

“My intention really was to do good,” he said. “At that time I accepted it as part of business, that you take risks and sometimes there's a loss. That was the cost of doing business. But they trusted me. They believed me that I would minimize the risk for them, and I let them down. The only thing I can hope for is that they will forgive me.”

The judge didn't buy Goring's explanation that his business dealings were conducted out of altruism.

“Your circumstances and the reason you're here, near as I can tell, is greed,” Vigna said.

She said Goring's desire for a lavish lifestyle motivated him to commit the crimes.

“If the proceeds of the loans were used to fix up the properties and get renters in them, we wouldn't have a problem,” Vigna said.

The judge also chided Goring, who is black, for playing the race card in his closing argument at trial and characterizing himself as a victim of the system.

She has since learned that he came to America from Guyana at age 7, but had the privilege of attending private schools throughout his life, financed by his father, a physician, and mother, who also was a medical professional. Goring graduated from the University of Southern California School of Business.

“You had many opportunities that most Americans in general do not have,” the judge said.