Three mortgage company employees were sentenced in Kansas City, Missouri for their role in a property flipping scheme and mortgage fraud that involved nearly 300 fraudulent loans worth almost $20 million.

Roderick Neil Criss, 35, Kansas City, Missouri, formerly the branch manager at Ameriquest Mortgage in Gladstone, Missouri, and president of Express Mortgage, was sentenced to three years and one month in federal prison without parole. The court also ordered Criss to pay $4,553,188 in restitution.

Cauncey Calvert, 36, Kansas City, Missouri, formerly an account executive at Ameriquest Mortgage, Express Mortgage and Mid Capital Mortgage, was sentenced to one year and six months in federal prison without parole. The court also ordered Calvert to pay $9,146,578 in restitution.

Robert Dale Beckley, 34, Kansas City, formerly an employee of Express Mortgage and Mid Capital Mortgage, was sentenced to one year and one day in federal prison without parole. The court also ordered Beckley to pay $7,988,077 in restitution.

Each of the three defendants pleaded guilty to participating in a conspiracy led by co-defendant Brent Michael Barber, 42, Belton, Missouri, that resulted in the largest mortgage fraud case ever prosecuted in the Western District of Missouri. “Many of the properties involved in the property-flipping schemes are in the downtown and midtown areas of Kansas City,” Bradley J. Schlozman, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, said. “These fraud schemes encompass 289 fraudulent loans totaling $19.6 million.”

Barber pleaded guilty on Febrary 23, 2006, to 104 counts contained in two federal indictments. Those indictments, as well as a third federal indictment for which Barber was convicted by a jury, involve separate schemes to defraud mortgage lending companies of millions of dollars. Barber is scheduled to be sentenced on October 30, 2006.

Barber pleaded guilty to the conspiracy count contained in each of the two federal indictments. He also pleaded guilty to 52 counts of interstate transportation of funds obtained by fraud and two counts of money laundering contained in the first indictment. He also pleaded guilty to 46 counts of interstate transportation of funds obtained by fraud and two counts of money laundering contained in the second indictment.

Barber recruited people to purchase rental properties, assuring them that he would find renters for the properties and sell the properties a short time later, so that the victim-investors would have no financial risk and a guaranteed quick profit. Then he provided false information on the loan documents and arranged for inflated appraisals in order to receive approval for the loans. Many of the buyers would not have qualified for the loans if true information had been given to the lenders.

During the first conspiracy, from May through October 1999, Barber was a client of Ameriquest Mortgage, Gladstone, Missouri. During that period, he conspired with co-defendants Criss, Calvert and Avonda Nicodemus, 34, Kansas City, Missouri, all account executives, to defraud Ameriquest. Nicodemus also pleaded guilty to his role in the conspiracy and was sentenced to probation.

As a result of that conspiracy, Ameriquest Mortgage approved 66 fraudulent loans totaling $4 million.

A second conspiracy began in October 1999, when Barber approached Criss and Calvert and suggested they set up a mortgage broker business to broker mortgage loans, giving Barber’s loans precedence. Criss and Calvert agreed, launching Express Mortgage, Inc., through which Barber conspired with Criss and Beckley to defraud lending institutions. Criss and Beckley have pleaded guilty to their roles in the conspiracy.

As a result of that conspiracy, lenders approved 233 fraudulent loans totaling $15.6 million.

In two separate but related cases, real estate appraisers Peggy Snodgrass, 40, Independence, Missouri, who operated a business in Raytown, Missouri, and Phillip Thomas, 50, Kansas City-North, Missouri, have pleaded guilty to providing artificially inflated appraisals on properties for which Barber was seeking mortgage loans.

In addition, Barber admitted he engaged in additional fraudulent real estate transactions involving both commercial and residential properties. These transactions involved more than $2.7 million of additional loss.

Under federal statutes, Barber may be subject to a maximum sentence of up to five years in federal prison without parole for each of the two conspiracy counts, plus a fine up to $250,000; up to 10 years in federal prison without parole on each of the 98 counts of interstate transportation of funds obtained by fraud, plus a fine up to $250,000; and up to 10 years in federal prison without parole for each of the four money laundering counts, plus a fine up to $250,000.

Under the terms of the plea agreement, Barber also agreed not to appeal the jury’s guilty verdicts in another federal indictment. On December 2, 2005, Barber was found guilty of three counts contained in an October 7, 2004, federal indictment.

That case involved a property flipping and mortgage fraud scheme while Barber was involved in the business of buying and selling real estate, doing business as KC Properties and KC Securities LLC. Vernon David Williams, 58, Kansas City, Missouri, was an employee of mortgage brokerage companies in Merriam, Kansas, and Lee’s Summit, Missouri. Williams pleaded guilty to his role in the scheme and was sentenced to probation.

The jury found that Barber conspired with Williams to defraud MILA, Inc., a mortgage lending company with its principal office in Mountlake Terrace, Washington, and Finance America LLC, a mortgage lending company with its principal office in Irvine, California, from July 24, 2004, to September 16, 2004.

Under federal statutes, Barber may be subject to a maximum sentence of up to 15 years in federal prison without parole for that conviction, plus a fine up to $750,000. Williams may be subject to a maximum sentence of up to 10 years in federal prison without parole, plus a fine up to $500,000.