Monday, March 06, 2006

$37 Million Restitution Order in Colorado Mortgage Fraud

Gerald P. Small, III, 43, Broomfield, Colorado, was sentenced to serve 101 months in federal prison. Small will also have to pay over $37,000,000 in restitution. The court deferred entry of judgment and restitution for 10 days so that disputed issues in the related forfeiture proceeding may be resolved.  Small was indicted in 2004 along with five others, in connection with allegations that and his co-conspirators implemented a scheme to obtain hundreds of millions of dollars in bogus mortgages and multi-million dollar lines of credit by falsifying documents submitted through Small’s company, Amerifunding, located in Westminster, Colorado and another Denver company controlled by Small, 20th Century Mortgage, Inc.

According to the facts stipulated in the plea agreement, Small and his associates at Amerifunding used help-wanted advertisements published in a Denver, Colorado newspaper to solicit job applicants, promising salaries of more than $100,000, for the sole purpose of obtaining the applicants’ personal identification information to obtain the fraudulent mortgage loans.

Others previously charged and convicted in the same indictment as Gerald SmallL were:

Kelli Small, Gerald Small’s wife, who was sentenced to serve 160 hours of community service during her 5 years probation in exchange for testifying against her husband;

Robert Bichon, who was sentenced to serve 35 months in federal prison, and ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $2,295,155.97 to various victims, and $141,163.13 to Washington Mutual;

Robert Sigg, who was sentenced to time served, and was ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $141,163.13 to Washington Mutual joint;

Charles Winnett, who was ordered to serve 51 months in federal prison and ordered to pay restitution totaling $22,400,000 to Flag Star Bank, and $12,632,080.64 to Impac Warehouse Lending Group; and

Chad Heinrich, who was ordered to serve 28 months in federal prison, and ordered to pay restitution totaling $22,400,000 to Flag Star Bank, and $12,632,080.64 to Impac Warehouse Lending Group.

Some of the restitution orders are joint and several with respect to multiple defendants.

On February 7, 2006, Harry Lou Gayle, 50, of Highlands Ranch, Colorado, an employee of Small, was charged by Criminal Information with one count of filing a false tax return for 2002. According to the Information, Gayle received $44,000 for signing four false loan applications related to a real estate fraud, but did not report the proceeds on his tax return. Gayle pled guilty on March 1, 2006 before U.S. District Court Judge Marcia S. Krieger, and is scheduled to be sentenced on June 26, 2006.

During the course of the investigation and prosecution assets obtained by Small and his associates were seized or restrained. These assets included 15 homes in Nevada and Colorado, a 2004 Jaguar, a 2003 Lexus, and over $8,000,000 in cash or bank accounts.

mortgage fraud

1. Please contact me via email. I would like to know how I can get infomation on amerifunding??? I responsed to an add for a lease owned property that was managed by gerald small...long storey short we had to move because we were told that the bank was foreclosing and we had move… I would like to know how to get in contact with someone about my 5 grand deposit that we lost??? please help...after everything happen i could not reach anyone in referance to this matter.. now I see why…

   Posted by  on  09/21  at  09:48 PM