Fifteen people have been charged with mortgage and welfare fraud and other crimes in a 21-count federal indictment.

The scheme stretched from Brooklyn to communities in the Hudson Valley.

U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara says the conspirators took in $20 million to pay credit card debts and their own home mortgages.

During a news conference Thursday at the federal courthouse in White Plains, Bharara outlined how the suspects allegedly claimed to be rich to get favorable mortgages, while at the same time claiming to be poor to get public assistance, and to default on those mortgages.

"The individuals involved alternately played the parts of prince or pauper, depending on which scam was being perpetrated," Bharara said.

The fraud included properties in Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Orange County, Bharara said.

Most of those arrested are relatives and in-laws of Irving Rubin, including his wife and sons.

Thirteen of those charged were arrested Thursday morning. Two others voluntarily returned to New York from Florida.

Orange County Sheriff Carl DuBois said a bad check investigation by one of his deputies helped lead authorities to the mortgage plot.

The investigation is continuing, Bharara said.