Overby pleads guilty to federal fraud charges
By Staff Reports
Published in News on August 1, 2010 1:50 AM
WILMINGTON -- A Goldsboro man has pleaded guilty in federal court to conspiring to commit mail, wire and bank fraud in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 371.
U.S. Attorney George E.B. Holding announced that Harold Aubrey Overby, 44, the president of HALO of North Carolina, Inc., and doing business as Hunter Creek Homes, a manufactured home dealership in Smithfield, entered into an agreement to defraud Southern Bank and Trust Co.
According to the court, from January 2004 to November 2006, Overby, needing capital to avoid bankruptcy, obtained funds from the bank by supplying false and fraudulent statements and information in relation to his customers' construction loans.
These resulted in numerous distributions of cash, which Overby converted to his own interests.
Additionally, Overby made fraudulent statements concerning his income, debt, and collateral, to obtain three other loans from the bank.
All of these loans went into default, ultimately resulting in losses to the bank in excess of $300,000.
At his sentencing, which is scheduled for November, he faces up to five years' imprisonment followed by up to three supervised release and a fine of up to $250,000.
This case was investigated and prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney's Mortgage Fraud Task Force, a group of federal and state law enforcement agencies whose goal is to fast-track mortgage fraud prosecutions.
Assistant U.S. Attorney William Gilmore represented the government.