White-collar lash

Lynda Sanabria, a banker for J.P. Morgan Chase, was sentenced today (June 1) to six months in prison followed by six months of home confinement. She had taken hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of bribes for selling mortgage loans to favored customers in the secondary mortgage market.

Israel Hechter of mortgage investment firms Ocean 18 and Note Tracker paid Sanabria $300 per loan; in return, she would provide information about competitors' bids. That added up to $210,000 during the 2004-2010 period she was taking the bribes. In 2008, Sanabria stopped paying taxes on the loot she was receiving, so she has been ordered to pay more than $40,000 to the Internal Revenue Service.

Hechter and other members of his family have pleaded guilty in the scam, which involved employees of GMAC Mortgage and National City Bank. Sanabria is the third defendant to be sentenced.