Former Jersey City police officer gets six months in prison and six months home confinement for making fraudulent statements on mortgage application

Published: Thursday, August 04, 2011, 3:00 AM
By Ron Zeitlinger/The Jersey Journal

A former Jersey City cop was sentenced to six months in prison and six months home confinement yesterday for making fraudulent statements on an application to obtain a mortgage to buy property in Jersey City, officials said.

Brian Ragauckas, 37, of Secaucus, must also repay Bank of America, which issued the Federal Housing Administration loan, $529,779, the full amount of the loan.

In September 2008, Ragauckas was still a Jersey City police officer when he submitted a loan application to Countrywide Bank for a $529,779 mortgage to buy a three-family home in Jersey City, officials said.

Ragauckas and his wife bought a home in Secaucus in 2000, but on the application for the Jersey City home he falsely stated that he rented the Secaucus residence and said he had not owned any property in the past three years, officials said.

Ragauckas also failed to acknowledge the outstanding mortgage on the Secaucus home when asked to list his liabilities.

By May of 2009 the mortgage on the Jersey City property was in default because Ragauckas could not make those mortgage payments in addition to the payments on the Secaucus home, officials said. The bank has since taken over the Jersey City home.