Parker to go to prison for fraud
By News-Argus Staff
Published in News on November 24, 2011 5:09 AM
A Goldsboro man was sentenced Tuesday to three months in prison and ordered to make $100,000 in restitution for his part in a scheme to defraud two banks.
Robert Keith Parker, 46, was sentenced in federal court by Chief United States District Judge James C. Dever III. Parker's imprisonment will be followed by five years of probation.
A criminal information report was filed on July 27 charging Parker with making false statements to influence a financial institution in connection with a loan. Parker pleaded guilty to the charge on Aug. 15.
The investigation arose out of the prior prosecution of closing attorney William Devaughn Orander III of Goldsboro and Mark Webb.
Webb, a former loan officer at Mount Olive-based Southern Bank and Trust and Dunn-based New Century Bank, conspired with Orander, who has since been disbarred, to defraud the two banks.
Officials said through a carefully orchestrated closing process, Webb and Orander were able to deceive the banks into funding home and land transactions at premium refinancing terms by creating two sets of HUD-1 documents with two simultaneous closings instead of one, according to court documents.
The first closing appeared as a cash transaction between the seller and buyer. A second closing was simultaneously conducted whereby the bank issued a loan to the buyer under the auspices of a refinance.
According to court documents, Orander used his trust account to disguise the flow of funds from buyer to seller thereby allowing buyers to purchase a home and leave the closing table with title to the property and as much as 50 percent over the purchase price in cash.
Parker was a client of Webb and Orander who had loans closed using the "double HUD" method.
On one loan Parker used his wife as a straw borrower to obtain loan proceeds for his own ends. Parker and Webb falsified income tax returns to qualify Parker's wife for the loan. Webb then placed the false returns into Southern Bank's files and had the loan approved based upon them.
Webb and Orander received active prison sentences in October for their parts in the scheme. A fourth defendant, Harold Overby, was sentenced in January.