Published: Thursday, October 15, 2009 at 8:30 a.m.
A Bolivia man was sentenced in federal court last week to almost six years in prison for his involvement in a mortgage fraud scheme out of Whiteville that netted $6 million.
Stanley Garfield Williams Jr., 38, was sentenced to 5.8 years in prison and five years supervised probation, U.S. Attorney George Holding announced Wednesday.
Williams pleaded guilty in February to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and mail fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering, according to a press release from the U.S. Department of Justice.
From roughly January 1998 until April 2004, the defendants and others devised a scheme to defraud home buyers, banks and other lenders to obtain money and property from the home buyers and lenders, by materially false and fraudulent pretenses, the press release stated.
According to the press release, co-defendant Daniel Rooks of Whiteville bought about four tracts of land in Whiteville, subdivided them, put trailers on them and sold them to low-income people in the area.
Rooks lied about the cost of the property to the buyers, the payment amounts and his ability to secure loans. He would then take the buyers' Social Security numbers and names, and turn them over to Williams, a mortgage broker, to finance the homes. He then falsified the loan applications and sent them for approval.
When the first round of sales foreclosed because buyers couldn't afford payments, Williams bought the properties and the scam started anew, according to the release.
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