David Tyrone Johnson, 48, Washington, D.C., was sentenced to a year and a day in prison on federal charges arising from a real estate scheme involving forged mortgage satisfaction documents.
Johnson pled guilty in April 2017, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, to charges of bank fraud and making false statements. He was sentenced by the Honorable Ketanji Brown Jackson. Following his prison term, Johnson will be placed on two years of supervised release. He also must pay $337,105 in restitution to Fidelity National Title Insurance Company, as well as a forfeiture money judgment of $170,688.
According to a statement of offense submitted at the time of the guilty plea, SunTrust Mortgage, Inc. loaned a friend of Johnson’s approximately $470,000 in 2008 to purchase residential real estate in the 100 block of 57th Street SE. By 2009, the friend had failed to repay the mortgage loans, and in 2010, SunTrust Mortgage filed a notice of foreclosure with the District of Columbia’s Recorder of Deeds. In April 2013, SunTrust Mortgage began the process of foreclosing on the mortgage and taking possession of the property, due to the friend’s failure to make good and timely payments on the mortgage loans.
Sometime before October 2, 2013, Johnson caused the creation of two phony and forged certificates of satisfaction, which falsely represented that the SunTrust Mortgage loans at the property on 57th Street SE had been paid and that his friend owned the property “free and clear.” According to the statement of offense, on October 2, 2013, Johnson filed these two phony certificates of satisfaction with the Recorder of Deeds.
In or about December 2013, after the fake certificates of satisfaction allowed the friend to sell the property without paying the outstanding mortgages, the title and escrow company wired out the sales proceeds of $337,105, of which approximately $170,688 was obtained by Johnson.
In addition, in 2015, Johnson was required to submit a financial disclosure form to his government agency employer; however, on that form, Johnson failed to disclose the money he obtained from the sales proceeds of the property, knowing that he had obtained the money. This failure to inform his government agency employer was material or important to his employer, and one that resulted in a false statement on his financial disclosure form.
In announcing the sentence, U.S. Attorney Channing D. Phillips and Andrew Vale, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office expressed appreciation for the work performed by those who investigated the case and assisted in preparing it for trial from the FBI, including the Washington Field Office and the FBI Laboratory. They also acknowledged the efforts of those working on the case from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, including Paralegal Specialist Christopher Toms; former Paralegal Specialists Corinne Kleinman and Kaitlyn Krueger; Litigation Tech Specialist Ron Royal, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Swanton, who assisted with forfeiture issues. Finally, they commended the work of Assistant U.S. Attorney Virginia Cheatham, who prosecuted the case.
Mr. Johnson’s conviction was vacated under seal in June of 2019.
The docket for this case reflects that Mr. Johnson served his sentence and that, in September 2019, he brought a motion for early termination of his supervised release. That motion, signed by his counsel on 9/25/2019, makes no reference to the sentence having been vacated and, in fact, reiterates that he entered a guilty plea, was sentenced and began serving that sentence on August 17, 2017, completed he term of incarceration and had been on supervised released since early 2018 and was in full compliance with the terms of his supervised release. The government opposed the motion on the grounds that restitution was still owing. The government opposition makes no mention of the sentence having been vacated. The docket further reflects that the court granted the motion for early termination of the supervised release in January of 2020. The docket and filings are inconsistent with the sentence having been vacated.
However, we would be happy to update this to reflect that conviction was vacated if you send us and we are able to verify the supporting documents.