Guilty plea in Desert Sun Development Case

Michael A. Wilson, age 58, pleaded guilty to bank fraud in United States District Court. Mr. Wilson from Murrells Inlet, South Carolina was indicted last November and was one of thirteen that were indicted by a grand jury on charges of mortgage fraud and bank fraud. The charges came from the collapse of Desert Sun Development, which was a commercial and residential construction company in Bend, Oregon.

Mr. Wilson is scheduled to be sentence on June 28th of this year.

Court documents reveal that Mr. Wilson moved to Bend, Oregon in December of 2006 to join Desert Sun Development as a construction supervisor. The records also show that Mr. Wilson while working for Desert Sun Development obtains two mortgage loans by fraudulent means in 2007. The loans were obtained by Mr. Wilson in his wife’s name and Mr. Wilson signed as her attorney of fact for both a purchase and a refinance of the property involved.

Mr. Wilson received a cashier check in the amount of one hundred twelve thousand dollars from principal of Desert Sun Development in order to close on the purchase and Mr. Wilson fraudulently claimed that the funds were his. Mr. Wilson later refinanced the home and need forty seven thousand dollars in order to qualify for the refinance. Desert Sun Development again provide the funds and Mr. Wilson claimed that the monies belonged to him. Desert Sun Development also provided mortgage lenders with a document stating that the funds were from a semi-annual bonus to Mr. Wilson wife, claiming that she had worked for the company for over two years with a base of fifteen hundred dollars a month. Mr. Wilson was required to bring in forty two thousand dollars to close on the refinance transaction. Desert Sun Development again supplied Mr. Wilson with the funds required to close.

The mortgage company involved used the information supplied by Mr. Wilson to approve the loans. Mr. Wilson was unable to make the payments on the loans and they property went into foreclosure. The loss to the bank was over three hundred sixty thousand dollars.

Mr. Wilson is facing a sentence of up to thirty years in prison and a million dollar fine.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Scott Bradford and investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigations Unit and the Oregon Division of Finance and Securities.


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