William D. Edgar, 49, Verona, Pennsylvania, was sentenced in a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania federal court to 37 months of incarceration and five years supervised release on his conviction of conspiracy, bank fraud, and wire fraud.
According to the court documents and information presented to the court by Assistant United States Attorney Brendan T. Conway, Edgar, who was a mortgage broker licensed by the Pennsylvania Department of Banking, operated a mortgage brokerage business known as America’s Mortgage Outlet, Monroeville, Pennsylvania. Between May 2001, and October 2003, Edgar participated with loan officers at America’s Mortgage Outlet in a scheme to defraud banks and private lenders by making false representations in more than seventy mortgage loan applications submitted on behalf of his customers.
The properties involved in the scheme includes:
211 Crestview Road, Pittsburg;
505 Railroad Aveue, Verona;
3901 Oakdale Street, Pittsburg;
374 Ingomar Street, Pittsburg;
1419 Arlington Avenue, Pittsburg;
3539 York Street, Munhall; and
231 Kansas Street, Verona, all of Pennsylvania.
Two types of fraudulent schemes were used. One form was to falsely represent to the lenders that mortgage loan applications presented to the lenders were for refinance loans, when in actuality the applications were for purchase loans. The refinance scheme deceived the lenders into approving and funding loans on terms and conditions they would not have otherwise approved or funded.
Another form of the scheme was to accurately represent loans as purchase loans, but to falsely inflate the sale prices and values of real properties being purchased in order to cause the lenders to approve larger loans than they would have otherwise approved. This scheme deceived lenders into financing down payments and other cash disbursements from mortgage loan proceeds. In total, more than $3,000,000 worth of loans were issued in connection with this scheme.
