Columbus Ohio Loan Officer Pleads Guilty to Fraud

Michael McAuley, age 40 from Columbus, Ohio according to court documents has pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering for his participation in a mortgage fraud scheme to defraud banks.

Court documents reveal that Mr. McAuley, who was employed by Sunrise Mortgage as a loan officer from 2003 to 2006; conspired with Andrew Pfeifer to defraud mortgage lending institutions. Mr. McAuley had access to prospective borrower information including wage, employment, assets and liabilities. He prepared mortgage loan applications and submitted them to mortgage lending institutions in order to obtain financing.

Mr. McAuley between November of 2005 and December of 2006 conspired with M. Pfeifer to defraud the mortgage lenders. Mr. Pfeifer role in the scheme was to purchase distressed and foreclosed properties for less than what the property was worth in value, renovate the properties and then resell them for an inflated value to buyers. The renovation often never took place.

Mr. McAuley would qualify the buyers in the scheme for financing and would falsify mortgage applications with fraudulent wages, employment, assets and liabilities and submit those applications to mortgage lending institutions. Mr. McAuley also falsified mortgage loan applications for Mr. Pfeifer in order to obtain the distressed or foreclosed on properties. Mr. Pfeifer in these properties rented them out to renters.

Mr. McAuley and Mr. Pfeifer in total submitted seven loan applications with fraudulent documentation and received wire transfers in from various title companies in an amount of over six hundred thousand dollars. Mr. McAuley also assisted Mr. Pfeifer in laundering funds in the amount of eighty five thousand four hundred thirty one dollars which Mr. Pfeifer obtained through their fraudulent activities. Mr. McAuley and Mr. Pfeifer deposited the funds received by fraudulent means into several different bank accounts in order to avoid detection.

Mr. Pfeifer, from Mansfield, Ohio was sentenced last June for his participation in the mortgage fraud scheme. He was sentenced to thirty six months in federal prison with three years of supervised release. Mr. Pfeifer was ordered by the court to pay restitution in the amount of seven hundred sixty thousand one hundred twenty nine dollars to those he defrauded. He was also ordered to the Internal Revenue Service forty thousand four hundred thirty dollars.

Mr. Pfeifer pleaded guilty back in May of 2008 to one count of filing a fraudulent federal income tax return with the Internal Revenue Service, one count of wire fraud, one count of bank fraud and one count of money laundering.

Mr. McAuley for his role is scheme is awaiting sentencing. The maximum sentence for Mr. McAuley’s crime is twenty years in federal prison, a fine of five hundred thousand dollars or twice the value of the property involved in the criminal transaction whichever is greater and  to pay restitution to be determined by the court.