A former loan officer with a local mortgage brokerage company is cooperating with the government in its prosecution of his former boss.

Vance Yukio Inouye, 31, pleaded guilty yesterday in federal court to one count each of wire fraud and conspiring to make false statements on loan applications and commit wire and mail fraud.

Wire fraud carries a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison. The maximum penalty for the conspiracy is five years in prison.

Inouye pleaded guilty as part of a plea deal with the government. The agreement requires him to pay restitution and testify for the prosecution against other defendants. In exchange, the government promises not to prosecute him for various other crimes and to recommend a sentence lighter than what he would qualify for.

In U.S. District Court, in front of U.S. Magistrate Judge Barry Kurren, Inouye said, “;John Dimitrion approached me with a foreclosure bailout deal I thought was legitimate.”;

Dimitrion is the owner and principal broker of Mortgage Alliance. A federal grand jury returned an indictment last month charging him, his wife, Julie Ann Baldueza Dimitrion, and employees Rick Kealoha Pa Jr. and Benjamin Yoshito Thompson with mortgage fraud crimes involving three homes.

Their trial is scheduled for next month.

The government says the deal Dimitrion proposed to Inouye was for Inouye's wife to be a straw purchaser of an Ewa Beach home whose owner was facing foreclosure. The conspirators processed false loan application documents and obtained a $299,102 loan, of which Inouye received $10,000, according to court documents.

The original owner remained in the home. She was to take over payments on the new loan or face eviction.

In addition, the government said Inouye and his wife applied for and received a $200,000 home equity line, a credit of which they used $120,000, said Clare Connors, assistant U.S. attorney.

Inouye said he intended to use the money to fix up the home and make mortgage payments.

So far, Inouye's wife is not named as a defendant.

Inouye is scheduled to be sentenced in June.