Samuel R. VanSickle aka Donald Blunt, aka Jacob Aiken, aka Paul Walsh, aka William Hall, Attorney, 52, Accident, Maryland was sentenced to two years in prison followed by five years of supervised release for conspiring to commit bank fraud arising from three fraudulent bank loans in which VanSickle received proceeds from the sale of real property in Garrett County, Maryland, and Cheat Lake, West Virginia, totaling over $5.7 million. U.S. District Judge Marvin J. Garbis also ordered VanSickle to forfeit and pay restitution of $2,755,102.50, and forfeit his interest in 40 properties held in his name or in the names of others that are located in Maryland, West Virginia and Pennsylvania, up to the value of $2,755,102.50.
VanSickle and co-defendant Louis W. Strosnider, III, 50, Oakland, Maryland, owned and developed property in Garrett County, Maryland. Strosnider operated Stony Brook Development Company, located in McHenry, Maryland. Vansickle used the following business names: Freedom Church, Gospel Church, Equity Exchange, Unity Mortgage, Impartial Lenders and Noble Forest Consultants.
According to his plea agreement, from December 2001 to May 2005, Strosnider fraudulently obtained real estate loans from banks to buy properties controlled, through aliases, by VanSickle. VanSickle concealed from the lenders his role as seller of the properties and recipient of the sales proceeds through fictitious identities such as “Donald Blunt, Trustee for Gospel Church,” “Donald Blunt, Trustee for Freedom Church,” “Equity Exchange,” “Unity Mortgage,” “Jacob Aiken” and “Allen Helms.” The scheme also involved fictitious down payments, inflated collateral, and false contracts.
For example, in 2002, VanSickle provided $600,000 for the purchase of Red Run, a restaurant and bed and breakfast which bordered on Deep Creek Lake in Garrett County, Maryland. In April 2003, VanSickle caused Red Run to be transferred for $0 to “Donald Blunt, Trustee for Gospel Church” – a fictitious church with a fictitious trustee. In February 2004, Strosnider signed a contract to buy Red Run from Gospel Church for $3 million. The contract recited a fictitious $750,000 down payment. Strosnider applied to a bank for a loan to complete the purchase of Red Run. When the bank required additional collateral, VanSickle supplied a timber contract for land in Garrett County with a valuation signed by “Paul Walsh” of “Noble Forest Consultants.” Both “Noble Forest Consultants” and “Paul Walsh” were fictitious. The settlement for the sale of the property was conducted by attorney Angela Blythe. Blythe failed to collect Strosnider’s funds to close the loan. At VanSickle’s direction, Blythe paid over the sales proceeds of $1.6 million to “Unity Mortgage,” which was VanSickle. “Unity Mortgage” did not, in fact, have a mortgage on Red Run.
VanSickle and Strosnider used similar fraudulent methods in Strosnider’s purchase from VanSickle of 5.87 acres on State Park Road, bordering Deep Creek Lake, and 116 acres of undeveloped land on Cheat Lake, West Virginia.
VanSickle received over $5.7 million in sales proceeds from the fraudulent transactions. Strosnider defaulted on all three loans. As a result of the scheme, the loss to the financial institutions was $2,755,102.50, the amount of the loans minus the recovery from foreclosure and sale of the collateral.
Strosnider previously pleaded guilty to his participation in the conspiracy and awaits sentencing. In a related case, Angela M. Blythe, 52, Oakland, Maryland, was convicted by a federal jury on October 9, 2015, after a nine day trial, of conspiring with VanSickle to commit bank fraud, bank fraud, and two counts of making a false statement to a bank. U.S. District Judge William D. Quarles sentenced Blythe to a year and a day in prison, and entered an order requiring Blythe to forfeit $696,517 and pay restitution of $948,203.25.
The sentence was announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein and Special Agent in Charge Kevin Perkins of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Baltimore Field Office. United States Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein praised the FBI for its work in the investigation and thanked Assistant United States Attorneys Joyce K. McDonald and Philip A. Selden, who prosecuted the case.
