Three more captured in massive multistate fraud scheme

Campos and Best were indicted in January on numerous charges for participating in a conspiracy to defraud mortgage lending businesses, banks, the Small Business Administration, and the Federal Trade Commission, according to the complaint. They indicated they would self-surrender before allegedly fleeing from law enforcement. Since that date, several other co-conspirators were indicted, officials added, including Crabtree. He was released on bond and became a fugitive.

Those indicted include Steven Tetsuya Morizono, 59, of Mission Viejo, Calif,; Albert Lugene Lim, 53, Laguna Niguel, Calif.; Melinda Moreno Munoz, 41, Elvina Buckley, 68, Leslie Edrington, 65, and ShyAnne Edrington, 29, all of Houston.

The charges allege Campos and Best recruited clients for credit repair using company names of KMD Credit, KMD Capital and Jeff Funding, among others. They allegedly “cleaned” their clients’ credit histories by filing false identity theft reports with the FTC, justice officials said.

“After fraudulently inflating client credit worthiness, the co-conspirators fraudulently obtained credit cards, disaster loans and mortgages for themselves and their clients, according to the charges,” justice officials said. “They were allegedly able to accomplish this through false statements and fake documents.”