Houston Broker Sentenced to 10 Years

Revis Otto Willis, a former mortgage broker from Houston, has been sentenced to 121 months in federal prison without parole followed by three years of supervised release for his leadership role in a mortgage fraud scheme. According to Tim Johnson, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Texas, Willis was a mortgage broker who owned and operated Advanced Mortgage Services in Houston. Between October 2004 and May 2008, Willis recruited straw buyers to make false statements about their income, employment and bank account balances on loan applications to purchase residential properties in the Houston area. He encouraged the buyers to apply for mortgages in amounts greater than the actual sales price of the home. The loan applications containing the false statements were submitted to various financial institutions that traded mortgages on the secondary market. The difference between the actual sales price and the exaggerated loan amount was divided among Willis and others involved in the scheme. Almost all the loans secured as part of the scheme were defaulted upon and resulted in foreclosures. Willis' scheme involved 21 different residences and resulted in $2 million in losses.