Chester Underhill, 47, McDonald, Pennsylvania, pleaded guilty in federal court to one count of Mail Fraud.
In connection with the guilty plea, Assistant United States Attorney Brendan T. Conway advised the court that Underhill was an unlicensed appraiser that during an approximately five-year period, used the license number of his deceased father to perform more than a thousand appraisals. In addition, he vastly overstated many of the values of the properties subject to the appraisals at the behest of mortgage brokers. These appraisals were then relied upon by lenders in lending money to borrowers.
Senior United States District Judge Alan Bloch scheduled sentencing for October 12, 2006. The law provides for a total sentence of twenty years in prison, a fine of $250,000, or both.
Rachel Dollar, the editor of Mortgage Fraud Blog is an attorney and Certified Mortgage Banker who handles litigation for lending institutions and secondary market investors.