Sacramento, California - Aleksandr Kovalev, 54, of Rocklin, was sentenced this week by U.S. District Judge Morrison C. England Jr. to three years and 10 months in prison for wire fraud involving financial institutions, U.S. Attorney McGregor W. Scott announced.

According to court documents, Kovalev was in the business of developing, building and selling real property in Sacramento, Fairfield, and Stockton. As the real estate market began to weaken, Kovalev offered to make incentive payments to purchasers, through “down payment assistance” or by making other payments to the buyers to be used in whatever manner the buyers wanted. Most of the payments to the buyers were out of escrow and were often paid through intermediaries, originating in Kovalev’s bank account. These payments were not disclosed to the lenders, and had the effect of substantially reducing the sales price below what was represented to the lenders.

Dozens of properties were involved in Kovalev’s mortgage fraud scheme, with several million dollars of losses to the lenders. Kovalev is the last to be sentenced out of nine individuals who were prosecuted as part of this mortgage fraud scheme.

This case was the product of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the IRS Criminal Investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Todd A. Pickles prosecuted the case.