Arthur James Marshall Jr., a former NFL and University of Georgia football player from Augusta, Ga., was sentenced by United States District Judge J. Randal Hall to 69 months in prison and five years of supervised release for his mortgage fraud convictions. Marshall was also ordered to pay more than $3.6 million restitution to his victims. Before imposing sentence, Judge Hall remarked that mortgage fraud was a major factor in pushing the country’s economy to “the brink of depression.”
“Mortgage fraud poses a significant threat to our nation’s financial system," said United States Attorney Edward J. Tarver. "This prosecution demonstrates the ongoing response of the United States Attorney's Office to protecting the integrity of the financial system of this nation. Relying on the joint efforts of federal, state and local law enforcement, this office will aggressively prosecute those who defraud financial institutions and other victims of mortgage fraud.”
Evidence presented at sentencing revealed that Marshall falsified sales contracts, personal finance records and other documents as part of his mortgage fraud scheme. The victims of Marshall’s scheme included banks, a family who never got a property title from Marshall after paying him $100,000 for a home, and members of the American Legion.
This case was brought in coordination with President Barack Obama's Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force. President Obama established the interagency Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force to wage an aggressive, coordinated, and proactive effort to investigate and prosecute financial crimes. The task force includes representatives from a broad range of federal agencies, regulatory authorities, inspectors general, and state and local law enforcement who, working together, bring to bear a powerful array of criminal and civil enforcement resources. The task force is working to improve efforts across the federal executive branch, and with state and local partners, to investigate and prosecute significant financial crimes, ensure just and effective punishment for those who perpetrate financial crimes, combat discrimination in the lending and financial markets, and recover proceeds for victims of financial crimes.
Tarver praised the efforts of the FBI in bringing this criminal activity to light. Assistant United States Attorney David Stewart prosecuted the case for the United States.
For more information, visit http://atlanta.fbi.gov.
