Houston Broker Sentenced to 15 Years for Mortgage Fraud

U.S. District Judge Lynn N. Hughes sentenced Clarence Lewis III, a licensed mortgage and real estate broker from Houston, to 15 years in federal prison without parole, followed by three years of supervised release, for running a mortgage fraud scheme. Judge Hughes also ordered Lewis to pay restitution, the amount of which will be determined early next year. According to Tim Johnson, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Texas, Lewis operated Motown Mortgage Group and Lewis and Associates Realtors and used an assumed name business, Astro Construction, to extract loan proceeds from the real estate closings. The loans on the majority of the properties obtained by fraud fell into default and the properties were foreclosed. Lewis obtained more than $12 million in fraudulent residential mortgage loans during the course of his five-year mortgage fraud scheme beginning in 2002.