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The lawyers defending former Eagles player Irving Fryar and his mother, Allene McGhee, against mortgage fraud charges rested their case in a Mount Holly courtroom Tuesday without calling any witnesses.
Fryar, 52, of Springfield Township, Burlington County, and McGhee, 74, a retired school bus driver from Willingboro, both decided against taking the stand to testify after the prosecution completed its case and the jury trial entered its third week. The two are charged with conspiracy and theft by deception in connection with a $1.2 million mortgage scheme involving six banks and one lending company in South Jersey and Philadelphia between October and December 2009.
Although the CPLR sets forth an applicable statute of limitations period for virtually all causes of action, and otherwise provides for a catch-all limitations period under CPLR 213(1) for claims that are not specifically delineated, the Court of Appeals has recently held that one particular, and not altogether uncommon, cause of action is not subject to any limitations period. In a remarkable 4-3 holding in Faison v. Lewis, the majority of the Court of Appeals held that a claim alleging forgery of a deed is not subject to any statute of limitations defense.
The Federal Housing Administration is expected to rebuff a government watchdog report that criticized down payment assistance programs, questioning why low-income borrowers are charged nominally higher mortgage rates for such programs.
The Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Office of Inspector General took issue in a report earlier this month with the so-called “premium pricing” of two down payment assistance programs in Arizona.
The watchdog alleged that NOVA Financial & Investment, a Tucson, Ariz.-based mortgage lender, violated HUD rules by charging borrowers nominally higher mortgage rates in return for assistance. It also alleged the lender failed to conduct due diligence on the non-profit government housing finance agencies that administer the down payment assistance programs and wants the lender to repay $48.5 million for 709 loans.
“The gifts were not true gifts as defined by HUD,” the report said. “To be considered a gift…there must be no expected or implied repayment of the funds to the donor by the borrower.”
The trial of a Phoenix man accused of setting up a real estate Ponzi scheme during the Great Recession continued in Santa Ana on Tuesday.
According to federal prosecutors who spoke with jurors at court, Michael J. Stewart—a co-owner of a real estate firm based in Irvine and Long Beach—set up the Ponzi scheme to pay off old investors while continuing to recruit new ones for a plan to flip distressed apartment buildings during the Great Recession’s housing collapse.
Stewart’s attorney told jurors that in fact his client was innocent and thought his plan was financially prudent because homeowners who lost their property in foreclosure would need to rent apartments.
The mortgage fraud trial of a former Eagles player and his 74-year-old mother took an unexpected turn in a Mount Holly courtroom Thursday when the key prosecution witness admitted during cross-examination that he told a prosecutor that he did not believe the woman was aware she was participating in an illegal scheme.
William Barksdale, a mortgage broker already serving a sentence for conspiracy to commit wire fraud, was testifying at the trial of Irving Fryar and Allene McGhee. The state Attorney General’s Office contends they were coconspirators with Barksdale in defrauded seven lending institutions in South Jersey and Philadelphia of more than $1.2 million in 2009.
A co-owner of a real estate firm based in Irvine and Long Beach set up a Ponzi scheme to pay off old investors while continuing to recruit new ones for a plan to flip distressed apartment buildings during the Great Recession’s housing collapse, a federal prosecutor told jurors.
However, Michael J. Stewart’s attorney told jurors his client was innocent and he thought his plan was a financially prudent one because homeowners who lost their property in foreclosure would have to turn to renting apartments Tuesday. Defense attorney Kenneth Miller also placed the blame for the company’s failure on co-defendant John Packard.
A financial broker who is serving time in federal prison in connection with a $2 million mortgage scheme took the stand Wednesday in the conspiracy trial of ex-Eagle Irving Fryar and his mother, Allene McGhee, in the Burlington County Courthouse in Mount Holly.
William Barksdale is the key witness in a high-profile case in which the state Attorney General’s Office alleges Fryar and McGhee conspired to defraud six banks and a mortgage company of more than $1 million in 2009. Barksdale, of Levittown, had pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud for assisting Fryar, McGhee, and several other Burlington County clients with the scheme.
A Myrtle Beach man has pled guilty to wire fraud as part of a “mortgage rescue scheme,” according to United States Attorney Bill Nettles.
Shayne Harrison Smith, 47, of Myrtle Beach pled guilty to wire fraud in federal court in Florence.
A 34-year-old Brooklyn man was sentenced to 21 months in federal prison Tuesday in U.S. District Court on wire fraud charges after he orchestrated the straw purchases of homes including one property in Worcester.
Alexander Ndaula, who also goes by the names Money Mals and Mals, was ordered to pay just over $237,000 in restitution. He will be on three years supervised release once he gets out of federal prison.
Real estate developer and Lake Oswego resident Roger Pollock agreed to a plea deal last week in connection with federal bank fraud charges relating to a loan he obtained for the construction of an office building on A Avenue.
Pollock, 54, is best known as the owner of the now-defunct Buena Vista Homes, whose projects included 141 houses built in Happy Valley. The fraud charges relate to a loan Pollock obtained for construction of an office building at 412 A Ave that was never built.