Jackie Gale Weaver, 50, West Hamlin, North Carolina, was sentenced by Chief United States District Judge James C. Dever, III to 21 months in prison. Larry Max McDaniel, 70, Vienna, North Carolina, was also sentenced by Chief United States District Judge James C. Dever, III to 66 months in prison.
Restitution has been ordered in the amount of $5.8 million dollars.
As previously reported by Mortgage Fraud Blog, and according to the indictment, in 2002 and 2006, James Thomas Webb was operating a company identified as Alpine Properties, LLC. Webb promised investors that he and Alpine Properties would use investor money to purchase homes at a low value, renovate the homes, and then sell them to first-time home buyers for a higher value.
The evidence established that McDaniel, a licensed real estate appraiser residing in West Virginia, and Weaver, a former appraisal associate of McDaniel, began to falsify appraisals for Webb and Alpine Properties. On the appraisals, McDaniel was listed as the North Carolina appraiser who performed each appraisal. In fact, however, McDaniel did not visit the properties, nor did he create the appraisal documents. Instead, the information that was listed in the appraisal reports, including measurements, sketches, and photographs, all came from Weaver or employees of Webb and Alpine Properties.
McDaniel did not draft, print, or execute the appraisals that bore his name and official seal; Weaver performed those tasks, often from within Webb’s offices at Alpine Properties. Nevertheless, McDaniel invoiced and received payment for many of the appraisals. McDaniel also wrote detailed letters to banks and lenders to support the value assigned in his appraisal documents, even though McDaniel had never, in fact, been to the properties. The superseding indictment alleges, and evidence in court ultimately showed, that Weaver created and McDaniel authorized approximately 200 false appraisals in the manner described above.
McDaniel pled guilty to Making a False Statement to Influence a Bank on a Loan and Aiding and Abetting, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Sections 1014 and 2. Weaver pled guilty on September 19, 2011, to Conspiracy to Commit Wire Fraud, Bank Fraud, and to Making False Statements to Influence Financial Institutions on Loans.
Webb was previously sentenced to 237 months in prison.
United States Attorney Thomas G. Walker announced announced the sentences which were handed down on January 27, 2014.
Investigation of the case was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the United States Postal Inspection Service, the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development Office of the Inspector General, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Office of the Inspector General, with the assistance of the North Carolina Appraisal Board. Assistant United States Attorney William M. Gilmore represented the United States.
Sounds like Stephen has a problem with the industry. It is not common practice in New England.
It is amazing how much fraud takes place. This appraiser submitted 200 fraudulent appraisals, he had to know he would eventually get caught.
A verrrry common practice in appraisal.