Georgia Man Pleads Guilty to Fraud

Mark Anthony McBride of East Point, Georgia, pleaded guilty in federal district court to obtaining millions of dollars in fraudulent mortgages and other loans and to a bankruptcy fraud designed to stay foreclosures on dozens of fraudulently obtained properties. According to the information presented in court, immediately after being released from prison in 2001, McBride began a mortgage fraud scheme that continued through 2002, when he had to report for service of another federal prison sentence. As soon as he was released from prison again in November 2006, McBride continued his scheme by completing fraudulent mortgage loans and other extensions of credit in his name, in his aliases, in a number of stolen identities, including those of his children and in the identities of other unqualified borrowers. These fraudulent loans continued until McBride was arrested in September 2008 for violating his supervised release. Dozens of banks and other funded fraudulent loans for McBride. McBride generated mortgage loan proceeds for himself using inflated valuations for properties, securing the loans and sharing those proceeds with his straw borrowers and other conspirators. He was able to retain proceeds from the frauds by filing eight bankruptcy cases in Georgia, Alabama and South Carolina. The last such fraudulent filing was a May 2008 petition in Atlanta, filed in a phony name and stolen Social Security Number. The petition falsely stated he had never filed bankruptcy in the past. Sentencing is scheduled for July 9 before U.S. District Judge Jack T. Camp.