Eden Prairie Resident Gets Probation, Community Service in Cloud 9 Fraud

A federal judge on Monday sentenced a former Eden Prairie resident to three years of probation and ordered her to perform 150 hours of community service for her role in an $8.9 million mortgage fraud scheme, according to a news release from the District of Minnesota U.S. Attorney’s Office.

United States District Court Judge Susan Richard Nelson sentenced 28-year-old Ashley Elizabeth Prasil, now of North Carolina, on one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud after admitting that she tried to defraud mortgage lenders who provided mortgages to the Minnetonka condo development Cloud 9 Sky Flats.

The scheme, which took place between December 2006 and December 2007, involved giving kickbacks to buyers who applied for loans to buy Cloud 9 condos.

The kickbacks, which were worth of about 30 percent of the reported purchase price, were routed back to the buyers through an account controlled by Prasil’s co-defendant Sheri Delich—after they skimmed off a portion for themselves. The loan applications and forms submitted to the lenders did not mention the kickbacks.

The co-conspirators sole more than 40 Cloud 9 units sold through the scheme. More than four-fifths of the loans have since defaulted.

In addition to the probation and community service, Prasil must also pay more than $2.2 million in restitution to the lenders defrauded in the scheme. The news release notes that she could have received more than two years in prison under federal sentencing guidelines. However, her sentence was reduced because she helped with the investigation.

The 47-year-old Delich, of Apple Valley, was ordered on Feb. 13 to serve five years of probation and six months of home confinement on one count of conspiracy to commit mortgage fraud and one count of money laundering.

Former Realtor My Dinh Lam, 32, of Minneapolis, was ordered to serve three years of probation on one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud for his role in finding buyers for the scheme.