A Kansas City, Missouri, man pleaded guilty in federal court to his role in a conspiracy to defraud home buyers and mortgage lenders of millions of dollars.

Phillip D. Thomas, 49, appraiser, Kansas City, Missouri waived his right to a grand jury and pleaded guilty to three-count information, admitting to his role in a mortgage fraud conspiracy. Thomas was a real estate appraiser doing business as Thomas Appraisal Service in Kansas City and Lee’s Summit, Missouri.

Thomas admitted, by pleading guilty to count one, that he conspired to fraudulently obtain approximately 177 loans in excess of $12 million from mortgage companies between May 1999 and June 28, 2002, in Kansas City and Lee’s Summit, Missouri.

As part of the conspiracy, Thomas admitted that victim-investors were solicited to obtain loans to purchase real estate. The loans were obtained by preparing fraudulent loan applications and supporting documentation, including false and inflated appraisals, for submission to the mortgage companies in the names of the victim investors.

Thomas’ role in the conspiracy was to prepare false and inflated appraisals and to instruct his co-conspirators to conceal and disguise the actual poor condition of properties from lenders to justify the inflated appraisals. Thomas also fabricated rental income information on properties to support the valuations his co-conspirators wanted on the properties.

Count two of the indictment alleged Thomas’ participation in a separate mortgage fraud scheme that also resulted in the convictions of Anthony Long, 34, of Blue Springs, Carl Edward Long, 55, of Oak Grove, Mo., and Mitchell David Medlin, 43, of Lee’s Summit (Click here to read the full story on the Long/Medlin convictions.) In connection with that scheme, Thomas admitted that he prepared inflated appraisals for loan applications that resulted

in a total of 115 loans being obtained in a total amount of $15,660,270.

By pleading guilty to Count Three of the federal information, Thomas admitted to engaging in a monetary transaction involving criminally derived funds greater than $10,000. Specifically, Thomas admitted that he purchased a residence using a loan application that contained false information, and that at the time he closed on that loan he provided false information again regarding a payment he claimed to have made toward the loan when, in fact, it was made by another individual. The lending institution sent a wire transfer to fund the loan in an amount of $1,132,504.17. The proceeds of the loan were then given to a coconspirator who, in turn, gave Thomas a check in the amount of $97,349.12 for his participation. Thomas then took the check he received and purchased a cashier’s check in an amount of $97,000 and deposited it into his business account.