Six Georgia reverse mortgage conspirators were sentenced this week on multiple charges of fraud, landing the defendants in prison for a collective 30 years, plus additional home confinement, supervised release and restitution.
The reverse mortgage scheme defrauded seniors taking out reverse mortgage for purchase loans as well as traditional FHA-insured reverse mortgages.
In the scheme, defendant James Michael Green, acting as the closing attorney admitted he knowingly accepted senior down payments from two other defendants and returned funds to them along with reverse proceeds, according to court documents. He also admitted to allowing other defendants to acquire properties at great discounts through short sales, reselling the properties to seniors at up to 16 times the acquisition costs. Green concealed the short sales from the reverse mortgage lenders and insurers. He faces 37 months in prison.
Another defendant, Gia Joy Glasses-Harris, was previously sentenced to 31 months after being found guilty of defrauding lenders and the Federal Housing Administration for forging property deeds, inflating property values and faking down payments for purchase reverse mortgages.
Two other participants in the scheme, Kelsey Torrey Hull and Jonathan Alfred Kimpson, fraudulently overvalued properties, secured FHA reverse mortgage loans, faked the reverse purchase down payments and forged HUD-1 documents. Hull was sentenced to 151 months in prison; Kimpson was sentenced to 102 months.
The final defendants were convicted of originating fraudulent reverse mortgages with bogus documentation, identity theft of Realtors and operating shell companies to facilitate the short sales.
“Those individuals who attempt to defraud such federally funded programs will continue to be a priority for the FBI’s Financial Crimes program,” said Brian D. Lamkin, Special Agent in Charge, FBI Atlanta Field Office. “The defendants in this case disregarded the needs and the welfare of the elderly that these programs were meant to help. The FBI will continue to work with its various law enforcement partners in protecting the integrity of these federally funded programs and asks that the public report any related fraud to law enforcement officials.”
Written by Elizabeth Ecker
