A federal grand jury indicted three Maryland individuals on charges of conspiracy to commit and committing wire fraud affecting a financial institution, in connection with a million-dollar mortgage fraud scheme. According to the nine-count indictment, they carried out a scheme to fraudulently obtain inflated home mortgages, which included the preparation of misleading and fraudulent real estate appraisal reports, and then diverted a substantial portion of the proceeds resulting from the sale of four homes to themselves. The defendants each face a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison for the conspiracy and for each of eight counts of wire fraud affecting a financial institution.