Mortgage Fraud Suspect Flees...

Batayeh from CHL Mortgage Group in San Ramon, CA

November 18, 2006

CONCORD, CA

Mortgage fraud suspect flees in BMW as FBI nears
- Henry K. Lee, Chronicle Staff Writer
Saturday, November 18, 2006

An allegedly armed Concord man vowing "not to be taken alive" fled from FBI agents Friday as they tried to arrest him on a federal indictment accusing him of a $13 million mortgage-fraud scheme, authorities said.

Edward Batayeh, 39, also known as Iyad Batayeh, quickly backed his BMW X3 out of his driveway on Chloe Drive and "fled down the street at a very high rate of speed" at about 8:30 a.m. as FBI agents were converging on the house, said Joe Schadler, FBI spokesman in San Francisco.

Batayeh should be considered armed and dangerous, according to a law-enforcement bulletin issued throughout the Bay Area about an hour later. FBI agents searched his home Friday afternoon.

Batayeh had served as executive vice president, chief financial officer and director of operations of CHL Mortgage Group in San Ramon.

Batayeh conspired from March 2000 to December 2004 to defraud four financial institutions by "double banking" fraudulent loans, or selling variations of the same loan to multiple investors without the investors' knowledge, according to the indictment unsealed Friday.

Batayeh carried out the conspiracy by sending fraudulent loan packages to financial institutions without the property owners' knowledge, said the indictment handed down Thursday by a federal grand jury in Oakland.

The defendant and others also obtained properties in the names of CHL employees and then obtained multiple fraudulent loans on these properties, authorities said.

Batayeh recently sent a false resume using the name of Ed Batayeh to Aurora Loan Services Inc., one of the previously defrauded financial institutions, the indictment said.

Batayeh was last seen driving a maroon 2003 BMW X3 with a license plate of 5ETZ317. Anyone with information on his whereabouts should call the

FBI in San Francisco at (415) 553-7400.

Considered to be "Armed and Dangerous" according to the FBI.

For More Information Contact:

Double Edge Investigations
PO Box 992, Pleasanton, CA 94566
Tel: 510-703-5730