New York woman gets jail, probation in real estate loan fraud

A New York woman convicted of forgery for submitting fake appraisals for $400,000 in bank loans for an apartment mortgage was sentenced Tuesday to five years' probation and six months in jail, the New York Journal News reported Tuesday.

Caroline Hoth, 43, insisted that she was innocent and that the only thing she did wrong was trust the man on whom she relied for the appraisals, media reports said. She urged Westchester County Judge Robert DiBella to show her leniency, according to reports.

DiBella cited several letters he received on Hoth's behalf and her lack of a criminal record as reasons for not sending her to state prison, where she could have gone for up to seven years, the Journal News reported.

Hoth is the executive director of a skin care and perfume company and was president of Remember Africa, an organization that promoted education for blacks and children in Africa and the Caribbean, reports said.

A jury found Hoth guilty of second-degree forgery in October, the Journal News said. She was arrested earlier in the year after one of the banks questioned an appraisal she submitted and an investigation began, reports said.

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