California mortgage broker gets 9 years in plea bargain

A mortgage broker from California's Central Valley has been sentenced to nine years in prison after pleading guilty to 122 counts of fraud and money laundering.

Tony J. Daniloo, 32, victimized homeowners seeking cash-out refinance loans, altering escrow documents and diverting cash into his personal bank accounts, prosecutors said. His victims included his parents, his in-laws, and friends and neighbors, the Modesto Bee reported.

Daniloo managed a Dublin, Calif., branch office for Residential Credit Corp. from 2000 to 2002 before founding DreamLife Financial in Modesto.

He raised the company's stature by posing as a philanthropist, pledging $1 million to the California State University Stanislaus athletic department, prosecutors said. The university renamed its basketball stadium "DreamLife Arena" before Daniloo's company was shut down, and DreamLife was a finalist for naming rights to the San Francisco 49ers' football stadium in 2004.

DreamLife, which had seven branch offices, closed in December 2004 after federal agents executing a search warrant seized its records.

Daniloo arranged a plea bargain with state prosecutors in May, in which he received a six-year, eight-month prison term and agreed to repay victims $1.34 million, the Bee reported.

The state and federal sentences will run concurrently. At sentencing Wednesday, U.S. District Court Judge William Alsup reduced Daniloo's nine-year sentence by 18 months, crediting him for time served.

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