DALLAS (CN) - A motivational speaker who hawked a book and infomercial on how to make money in real estate has been sentenced to 11 years in federal prison for his role in a multimillion-dollar mortgage fraud.
Eric Rulack Farrington Jr. also was ordered to pay $2.5 million in restitution and forfeit $1.2 million to the government.
Farrington, 57, president of Eric Farrington Seminars and Prestige Capital Corp., which did business as Farrington Mortgage Group, also was a manager of EFC Investments, which did business as EFC Management Co. All operated out of Dallas.
Farrington and seven other defendants were convicted of several felonies in April 2010 after a nearly 2-month long trial. They ran their scheme out the Dallas area from March 2002 until January 2006. Farrington is the last defendant to be sentenced. U.S. District Judge Sam Lindsay ordered him to surrender to the Bureau of Prisons on Sept. 6.
The jury convicted Farrington of all 32 counts of the superseding indictment: one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, one count of bank fraud and aiding and abetting, 15 counts of wire fraud and aiding and abetting, 10 counts of money laundering and aiding and abetting and five counts of engaging in a monetary transaction with criminally derived property and aiding and abetting.
Prosecutors said the scheme was largely orchestrated by Farrington, that the defendants located several single-family residences for sale in the Dallas area, including distressed and pre-foreclosure properties, and negotiated a sales price with the seller.
"[The defendants] created surplus loan proceeds by inflating the sales price to an arbitrary amount substantially more than the fair market value of the residence, many times using inflated appraisals. In some cases, they would create a bogus outstanding mortgage lien to be discharged," prosecutors said in a statement.
"They recruited individuals with high credit scores to act as borrowers and falsely represented to them that the property would be managed by the defendants and rented by a suitable tenant; that the mortgage, interest, taxes, insurance and property maintenance would be paid from the rental income; and the purchasers/borrowers would have no expenses. The borrowers had no intention to live in the property and did not have sufficient income to repay the loans."
The defendants prepared and submitted fraudulent loan documents showing inflated incomes in the names of the borrowers and obtained loans in inflated amounts based on the fraudulent documents, using the fraudulently obtained loans to pay the sellers kickbacks and to pay the bulk of the proceeds to themselves. Then they let the loan go into foreclosure after a few payments.
Also convicted and sentenced were:
Regis Lamont Williams, 45, of Dallas, a Texas certified real estate appraiser who did business as Executive Certified Appraisal. He was convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, one count of bank fraud and aiding and abetting, nine counts of wire fraud and aiding and abetting and five counts of engaging in a monetary transaction with criminally derived property and aiding and abetting. He was sentenced on April 28 to 46 months in prison and ordered to pay $1 million in restitution and forfeit $1.2 million to the federal government.
Kevin Ray Sanderson, 36, of Irving, a business associate of Farrington and the vice president of Farco Construction, of Dallas, dba Farrington Mortgage Group. He was convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, one count of bank fraud, four counts of wire fraud and aiding and abetting and one count of money laundering. He was sentenced last week to 57 months in prison and ordered to pay $762,983 restitution, and forfeit $1.2 million to the federal government.
James Edward Jones, 45, of Dallas, a real estate agent. He was convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and two counts of wire fraud and aiding and abetting. He was sentenced in August 2010 to 30 months in prison and ordered to pay $624,414 restitution and forfeit $1.2 million to the federal government.
Edwin Terrence Bell, 44, of Fort Worth, was in the real estate management business and was president of Togetherness, Inc. Bell also did business as The Togetherness Group and TTG Inc. He was convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, five counts of wire fraud and aiding and abetting and two counts of engaging in a monetary transaction with criminally derived property and aiding and abetting. He was sentenced in August 2010 to 41 months in prison and ordered to pay $442,604 in restitution and forfeit $1.2 million to the federal government.
Micheal (sic) Lewis Andrews, 51, of Plano, Texas, was CEO of Second Chance Mortgage and did business as 2nd Chance Mortgage. He was convicted of two counts of wire fraud and aiding and abetting. He was sentenced last week to 24 months in prison and ordered to pay $108,659 in restitution.
Robert John Mason, 56, of Oak Leaf, Texas, was an employee of Prestige Capital Corp. He was convicted of two counts of wire fraud and aiding and abetting. He was sentenced in July 2010 to 30 months in prison and ordered to pay $463,722 in restitution.
Before trial, Marcus Allen Parker, 36, of Rowlett, Texas, who was an associate of defendant Kevin Ray Sanderson, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and was sentenced, in July 2010, to 3 years probation.
Follow @davejourno
Subscribe to Closing Arguments
Sign up for new weekly newsletter Closing Arguments to get the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and hot cases and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world.
Additional Reads
-
-
Contributor-Test-Post-2024-04-12 April 12, 2024
