Alabama Closing Attorney to Plead Guilty in $1M Mortgage Loan Scheme
January 10, 2013
A real estate closing attorney will take a plea in a federal mortgage fraud case that was unsealed last week in a U.S. District Court in Birmingham, Ala.
Kelvin Leonard Davis, 41, has agreed to plead guilty to four counts of wire fraud, concerning transactions in which he submitted fraudulent documents to lenders to obtain mortgages, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
At the time of the fraudulent transactions, from October 2007 to January 2012, Davis served as the closing attorney on each of the fraudulent loan transactions.
As part of the plea, Davis has agreed to forfeit $269,335 to the government as proceeds of the illegal activity.
According to the four-count information charging Davis and his plea agreement with the government, he carried out his fraud as follows:
Davis submitted false statements with loan documents in order to obtain approval for mortgage loans that would otherwise not have been approved. In many instances, Davis, while serving as closing attorney, would use his trust account to provide money to the borrower when a mortgage loan was closing. Davis would recover the money by subtracting the amount he provided from the proceeds he issued to the seller. Davis also would assess the seller a fee, ranging from $1,000 to $6,000, and make checks for the fee payable to Peaceful Valley Homes, a corporation he had formed. Total losses to the various lenders as a result of Davis’ fraud were nearly $1 million.
The maximum sentence for each count is 20 years in prison and a $1 million fine.
Contact ALTA at 202-296-3671 or communications@alta.org.