-19 properties totaling nearly $5 million-
LOUISVILLE, KY – February 25, 2011 – (RealEstateRama) — David J. Hale, United States Attorney for the Western District of Kentucky, announced today that a federal grand jury in Louisville returned a superseding indictment against six Kentuckiana men charging them with one count of engaging in a conspiracy to commit bank and wire fraud by intentionally devising a scheme to defraud various banks and mortgage lenders by submitting fraudulent mortgage loan information in the purchase of 19 properties in Louisville, Kentucky and Jeffersonville, Indiana totaling nearly $5 million dollars. The Indictment alleges that between November 1, 2006 and August 30, 2008, Shawn Bramlett, Billy D. McDaniels, Dane Little, Kyle Kark and Mark Hack all of Jeffersonville, Indiana and Stephen C. Netherton of Louisville, Kentucky perpetrated a fraudulent scheme against various banks and commercial lending companies, including Wells Fargo Bank, Bank of America (formerly Countrywide Home Loans), Accredited Home Lenders, Primary Residential Mortgage Company, and First Franklin Financial Company by submitting applications and other documents for loans which contained false and fraudulent information, including false employment information, false and fraudulent bank account balances, and false representations that down payments were being made toward purchases of properties.
According to court records, after loan applications were approved for funding, the loan proceeds were wire transferred in interstate commerce to designated accounts with various banks in Louisville, Kentucky whereby the defendants and other unnamed co-conspirators appropriated, for their personal benefit and gain, portions of the fraudulently obtained loan proceeds.
The Louisville grand jury returned a second count in the superseding indictment against Little and Netherton charging them with conspiracy to commit bank fraud in a separate but similar fraudulent scheme against various banks and commercial lending companies, by submitting applications and other documents for automobile loans which contained false and fraudulent information, including borrower’s employment, income and assets, and identity of the seller of the vehicle.
According to court records, between October 22, 2010 and December 31, 2010, the defendants caused fraudulent loans to be funded in the amount of $118,000, purportedly to purchase four vehicles and in atleast one instance no car was purchased. After obtaining the loans, the defendants and other unnamed co-conspirators appropriated for their personal benefit and gain portions of fraudulently obtained loan proceeds.
In the event of a conviction, the maximum potential penalties are 40 years’ imprisonment, a $500,000 fine, and supervised release for a period of 3 years.
The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Jim Lesousky, and it was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Kentucky Department of Financial Institutions.
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The indictment of a person by a Grand Jury is an accusation only and that person is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.
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Originally released Feb. 24, 2011
By Office of U.S. Attorney David J. Hale of the Western District of Kentucky
www.usdoj.gov/usao/kyw
Contact: Stephanie Collins
502-582-5911
Stephanie.Collins (at) usdoj (dot) gov
Contact:
Kelly May, Public Information Officer
502-573-3390 ext. 252
800-223-2579 ext. 252
kelly.may (at) ky (dot) gov
