Christopher G. Brooks, 39, was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Seattle for his role in fraudulently netting more than $1.6 million

Christopher G. Brooks, 39, was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Seattle for his role in fraudulently netting more than $1.6 million for him and his wife by participating in 54 fraudulent loan transactions worth more than $27 million.

The scheme of Brooks and his wife, Amani Moss, involved home sellers agreeing to overstate their homes’ sales prices, with the difference between the home’s true sale price and the overstated price going to the couple’s Peachtree Development company.

Government officials said Brooks and Moss would recruit “straw buyers” for the homes, who would be paid up to $10,000. The couple would prepare false mortgage loan statements for the “straw buyers” and submit them to lenders.In one example cited by officials, the couple were involved in sale of a home on 240th Way Northeast in Redmond. The government alleges that Moss provided false information to First Guaranty Financial Corp. on a $1.6 million loan, saying that the buyer earned $101,277 a month. The government alleged that $778,000 of the loan’s proceeds returned to the couple.The pair also participated in transactions in Seattle, Federal Way, Issaquah, Mukilteo, Sammamish, Tacoma, Covington, Kenmore and Black Diamond.“His actions, his behavior, along with many others that jumped on this particular bandwagon to commit fraud, set in motion this chain reaction of economic and financial adversity that spread not only throughout our entire country but to global financial markets as well,” said U.S. District Judge Ricardo Martinez, at Brooks’ sentencing.