Attorney Sentenced To Five Years For Mortgage Fraud

Mary Reagan of Alpharetta, Ga., was sentenced to serve nearly five years in federal prison for her role in a multi-million dollar mortgage fraud scheme. Reagan pleaded guilty in July 2008 shortly before she was to go to trial and agreed to assist the government in the prosecution of the scheme. Reagan was sentenced to four years, nine months in federal prison, to be followed by five years of supervised release. Reagan was also ordered to pay more than $4 million in restitution. According to David Nahmias, U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Georgia, from mid-2004 through June 2006, Reagan was an attorney doing business as The Reagan Law Group, closing fraudulently inflated mortgage loans provided to unqualified straw buyers. Reagan was responsible for representing the mortgage lenders at the closing table. However, when the loans closed, she transferred the inflated loan proceeds to her co-conspirators by falsifying closing documents and concealing the true recipients and purposes of payments made from the lenders. She also concealed from the lenders that the unqualified straw buyers did not make sizeable down payments required by lenders as a condition of closing.