The owner of several Illinois nursing homes has been indicted by a federal grand jury for allegedly skimming money from federally insured facilities that had defaulted on mortgage loans to pay expenses of a non-federally insured facility. Mark Yampol, 57, of St. Louis, Mo., is charged with one count of equity skimming. According to the indictment, Yampol controlled a portfolio of nursing homes in Illinois, including homes in the Chicago suburbs of Northbrook and St. Charles. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development insured the mortgage loans made by private lending institutions to all but one of Yampol’s nursing homes. By March 1, 2015, the HUD-insured facilities had not made timely mortgage payments and were in default of their loans. From May 2015 to August 2015, Yampol diverted approximately $1.1 million in funds derived from the HUD-insured facilities, which remained in default on their loans, to pay the mortgage and operating expenses of the non-HUD-insured facility, the indictment states.
