United States Attorney A. Brian Albritton has announced that U.S. District Judge Henry Lee Adams Jr. has sentenced Barry C. Westergom of Jacksonville, Fla. to four years in federal prison for conspiracy to commit wire and bank fraud. The court also ordered restitution in the amount of $866,141.62 and entered a money judgment for $100,000, the amount that Westergom had obtained from the fraud. Westergom had pleaded guilty on Oct. 8, 2009.Read more

The former president of Mortgage One Corporation in Hesperia, Calif. was sentenced to 13 years in federal prison for defrauding the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD) and private lenders by fraudulently obtaining hundreds of federally insured loans and selling those mortgages to private lenders in a scheme that caused tens of millions of dollars in losses to the federal housing agency.Read more

A former California-licensed real estate appraiser was sentenced to three years in federal prison and ordered to pay more than $46 million in restitution for her role in a massive mortgage fraud scheme that caused tens of millions of dollars in losses to federally insured banks. Lila Rizk of Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif. received the three-year prison term after her conviction last summer on conspiracy, bank fraud and numerous loan fraud charges.Read more

Jeffrey Todd Crandell, 33, of Mesa, Ariz., pleaded guilty on Nov. 9 to six counts of bank fraud for his role in a mortgage fraud scheme. Sentencing will take place Feb. 22, 2010, before U.S. District Judge G. Murray Snow. Crandell was the leader of a sophisticated cash-back mortgage fraud scheme.Read more

Clarence Lewis III, 46, of Houston, has been sentenced to 15 years in federal prison without parole for running a mortgage fraud scheme, United States Attorney Tim Johnson has announced. United States District Judge Lynn N. Hughes handed down the prison sentence at a hearing on Nov. 10. Lewis was convicted May 13, 2009, of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud and four counts of wire fraud by Judge Hughes following a bench trial before Judge Hughes.Read more

United States Attorney A. Brian Albritton announced that U.S. District Judge Henry Lee Adams Jr., has sentenced Juan Carlos Gonzalez (age 51, of Jacksonville, Fla.) to seven years in federal prison for conspiring to commit wire and bank fraud. The court also entered a money judgment against Gonzalez for $6,296,303.65, the amount that Gonzalez obtained from the fraud. Gonzalez had pleaded guilty on Nov. 25, 2008.Read more