Loan Officer Convicted For Role In Mortgage Scam Defrauding 200+ People, 20 Banks; Described As "Architect" Of Scheme

In Columbus, Ohio, The Columbus Dispatch reports:

• A loan officer was convicted yesterday for his role in a scheme that defrauded more than 200 people and 20 banks, but an appraiser who worked with him was acquitted of all charges in the case. After about eight hours of deliberations, a federal jury convicted Jonathan L. Boyd for a mortgage-fraud scam that was fueled by greed and aided by a hot real-estate market, prosecutors said.

• Early in the afternoon, the jury returned with not-guilty verdicts for co-defendant James D. Gaither, who was accused of inflating appraisals to match the prices of properties for which Boyd found buyers.

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• Prosecutors said Boyd, 39, [...] and Gaither, 38, [...] targeted "inexperienced buyers" in 2003 and 2004, when homes were selling quickly. Many of the homes approved for loans or appraised by the men ended up in foreclosure, agents for the Internal Revenue Service said. [...] Prosecutors had said Boyd was the architect of the scheme.

For more, see Mortgage officer guilty of fraud.

For a copy of the original indictment, see U.S. vs. Green, Schottenstein, et al.

Go here for earlier reports on this scam.