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A Bowie man was indicted March 9 by a federal grand jury for his role in a Lanham-based mortgage fraud scheme that duped homeowners who had been facing foreclosure and were promised help keeping their homes and repairing their damaged credit.

Rolando Alonzo Cousins, 31, also known as Junior, was arrested March 9. He faces up to 30 years in prison for his role in the scheme, which caused more than $16 million in losses to homeowners and mortgage lenders, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the State of Maryland.

Cousins appeared March 9 in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt. His next court date has not yet been scheduled.

Cousins also faces a $1 million fine for a conspiracy count and for each of two mail-fraud counts, and 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine for each of eight counts of money laundering, United States Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein said in a statement.

The indictment also seeks the forfeiture of $1.5 million, Cousins' alleged proceeds from the scheme.

Cousins was a senior loan officer for the Lanham-based Metropolitan Money Store, a foreclosure consultation and credit services company for financially distressed homeowners that was founded in 2005. He also owned and operated the Bowie-based Prosper Investments LLC.

Metropolitan Money Store was incorporated by Joy Jackson, 42, of Fort Washington and Jennifer McCall, 48, of Fort Washington.

McCall was sentenced in December by U.S. District Judge Roger W. Titus to 11 years in prison, followed by five years of supervised release. She also must pay $16 million in restitution for conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud for her involvement in the scheme.

The indictment alleges that from September 2004 to June 2007, Cousins, Jackson, McCall and others fraudulently promised to help homeowners avoid foreclosure, keep their homes, and repair their damaged credit by directing the homeowners to allow title to their homes to be put in the names of third-party purchasers, or straw buyers, for one year while the defendants would help the homeowners obtain more favorable mortgages, improve their credit rating and eventually return title to their homes to them.

The defendants told the homeowners that the equity withdrawn from the properties would be used to pay the mortgage and expenses on their homes and to repair their credit.

However, according to court documents, the defendants used homeowners' properties to apply for fraudulent loans from mortgage lenders to extract the maximum available equity from the homes. During settlement, McCall and others imposed bogus fees and transferred money out of escrow accounts and into their businesses and personal accounts.

Cousins' attorney, Anthony Martin of the Offices of Anthony D. Martin based in Greenbelt, declined to comment.

Ten defendants have pleaded guilty in this scheme.

Jackson, president of the Metropolitan Money Store, was sentenced to 151 months in prison. Jackson's husband, Kurt Fordham, 40, of Fort Washington was sentenced to 10 years in prison for his participation in the scheme. Richard Allison, 38, of Camp Springs, who provided legal services to the Money Store, was sentenced Sept. 14 to 18 months in prison.

Carlisha Dixon, 32, of Hyattsville was sentenced to five months in prison and five months of home detention. McCall's husband, Clifford McCall, 49, of Lanham was sentenced Oct. 5 to four years in prison, and Jennifer McCall's daughter, Chandra Jones, 32, of Lanham was sentenced to 33 months in prison. Katisha Fordham, 37, of Washington, D.C., who was a loan processor at the Metropolitan Money Store and is Kurt Fordham's sister, was sentenced to one day in prison, followed by five months' home detention and five months' supervised release.

Wilbur Ballesteros, 34, of Lanham, a licensed real estate agent, was a closing agent on more than 60 straw buyer properties, and Ronald Aaron Chapman, 35, of the District, a loan officer at Metropolitan Money Store have pleaded guilty in the scheme and are facing a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison.

E-mail Liz Skalski eskalski@gazette.net.