A four-year falsified-document scheme put the FHA insurance program at risk of nearly $5.9 million in losses
Federal prosecutors in Houston have charged two Texas residents with mortgage fraud after an alleged scheme involving fabricated pay stubs, W-2 forms, and bank statements.
The pair allegedly used the falsified documents to help unqualified borrowers secure home loans. Their actions put the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) insurance program at risk of nearly $5.9 million in potential losses.
Tammi Hunnicutt, 64, and Taylor Dickson, 33, both of the Houston area, face charges under an 11-count indictment recently unsealed in the Southern District of Texas.
Prosecutors allege the pair targeted multiple lenders between October 2019 and September 2023, misrepresenting borrowers’ employment status and income to push applications past underwriting thresholds they could not otherwise have cleared.
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The alleged operation centered on document manipulation across FHA and conventional loan programs.
Counterfeit pay stubs, manipulated bank statements, and fabricated W-2 forms were submitted to multiple lenders, allowing borrowers to qualify for loans they were not entitled to receive, prosecutors allege.
"By misrepresenting borrowers’ financial qualifications, their actions exposed the FHA insurance program to approximately $5,890,112.30 in potential losses," said Grant Permenter, Special Agent in Charge of the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) – Office of Inspector General (OIG).
"HUD-OIG remains committed to protecting the integrity of HUD programs and will continue working closely with the US Attorney’s Office and our law enforcement partners to hold accountable those who use fraud and deception to circumvent federal housing requirements."
US Attorney Aaron F. Reitz, Southern District of Texas, said prosecutors would not ease up.
“Mortgage fraud undermines the integrity of our financial system and puts lenders, taxpayers, and legitimate homebuyers at risk. Our office will aggressively pursue those who exploit the mortgage lending process for financial gain and work with our law enforcement partners to hold them accountable.”
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What brokers should know about rising document fraud risk
The indictment reflects a broader enforcement escalation. A Florida mortgage professional received a 30-month federal sentence for fabricating income documents and altering bank statements submitted to lenders backed by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the FHA.
Application-level fraud risk has climbed 7.3% year over year as of Q1 2025, according to Cotality. By the close of Q4 2025, the company’s National Mortgage Application Fraud Risk Index stood at 133, equivalent to 1 in every 118 applications carrying fraud indicators, up from 131 in Q4 2024.
Matt Seguin, senior principal of fraud solutions at Cotality, previously told Mortgage Professional America about the warning signs of mortgage fraud at origination that the evidence is frequently embedded in the documents themselves.
“You have documents like pay stubs and bank statements where you’re able to look at mailing addresses and see whether something lines up from that perspective,” he said.
Each defendant faces up to 20 years in prison and a possible $250,000 fine for conspiracy to commit wire fraud or wire fraud, and up to 30 years and a potential $1 million fine for making false statements to a mortgage lending business.
The investigation was conducted jointly by the FBI, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) – Office of Inspector General, and HUD-OIG.
Assistant US Attorney Rodolfo Ramirez and Special Assistant US Attorney Shalimar Addy are prosecuting the case.
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