Pennsylvania Man Sentenced to 5 Years in Prison for Mortgage Fraud

A Pennsylvania man will spend five years in a federal prison after pleading guilty to multiple counts of fraud. He was convicted of scamming mortgage lenders out of approximately $13 million. The 47-year-old man was also ordered to pay restitution of more than $12.7 million and forfeit another $4.2 million in proceeds from the fraud.

The man, George Barnard, ran his scheme from 2005 to 2013. He was one of a pair of owners of Capital Financial Mortgage Corporation, and also owned several title companies. Rather than using money from banks to fund mortgage loans for borrowers or pay off those borrowers’ existing mortgages, Barnard took the money himself and used it to purchase beach homes, luxury cars and yachts, even paying for a personal yacht captain’s salary.

Barnard scammed lenders who loaned money to CMFC, as well as lenders who bought mortgages written by the firm who loaned Barnard himself millions of dollars. He also defrauded the Internal Revenue Service by filing tax returns that left out millions of dollars of income, which caught the attention of federal investigators.

Investigators also revealed Barnard caused harm to more than two dozen borrowers who went to CMFC to refinance their mortgages and came away with two mortgages after Barnard did not pay their existing mortgages, instead choosing to sell those mortgages to other lenders.

An attorney can help you strategize a defense

If you are accused of a white-collar crime, it is important to work with an attorney to establish the best strategy for your defense. To learn more about your options, consult skilled Reading criminal defense lawyer David R. Eshelman.