Mortgage fraud suspects released on $20K bonds

Thursday, May 21, 2009
By Brian Mosely

The four individuals charged with bank fraud and money laundering earlier this week have been released after signing an agreement with federal prosecutors.

Roger Ritch, of Shelbyville, along with William McMahan, Jonathan Henderson and Carrie Snow, all of Murfreesboro, appeared before a federal magistrate in Chattanooga Tuesday, following their arrest in connection with an alleged multi-million dollar mortgage fraud scheme involving hundreds of homes in Shelbyville.

Sheriff Randall Boyce said the indictments were explained to the four by Assistant U.S. Attorney Gary Humble and the federal magistrate, as well as what punishment they could face.

The combined sentences could be very lengthy and the fines quite substantial, Boyce said.

The agreements the four signed require a $20,000 bond that can be revoked by the federal judge if the suspects do anything to violate the terms -- even a traffic ticket could place them back in federal custody.

"It's not a good idea for them to do anything," Boyce said Thursday morning.

The indictments allege that the four devised a scheme to obtain financing under false pretenses for purchasers of residential properties developed by American Value Homes, a construction company that Ritch owned in Shelbyville.

As part of the scheme, the indictment alleges that the defendants did business as Mortgage Processing Services and Value Title, preparing loan applications containing false information, misrepresented the down payment amount made by borrowers, and falsely represented the employment status and income of borrowers.

According to the sheriff's department, the scheme involved the sale of houses by Ritch's company totalling approximately $30 million, and foreclosure on the fraudulent loans has resulted in a loss to lenders totaling approximately $2.4 million.

On Wednesday, Boyce also downplayed speculation posted by citizens on the Times-Gazette website regarding the possible involvement in the alleged scheme by Peoples Bank of Bedford County.

"People's Bank has never been the focus of this investigation," Boyce said. "And no employee of Peoples Bank is under suspicion or has been under suspicion in any part of this. They have nothing to do with this investigation."

Comments

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in the building of these houses a lot of money was spent on materials and construction wages.so it is not all bad about what went on here.these folks used a wrong approach to making their fortunes unfortunately.

-- Posted by grandpat on Thu, May 21, 2009, at 2:03 PM

$20,000.00 Bond, are you kidding me? You can't seriously with a straight face say that Marvin Parker, who has many ties to this community (family and financial) is a flight risk, but these cons are not! This just shows the corruptness of the Bedford County court system. When I heard they were holding him until his Court date because of flght risk, I made the comment that the judge didn't like Marvin. The Feds just proved it!

-- Posted by jdl.7971 on Fri, May 22, 2009, at 1:48 PM

ditto that.

jdl.7971

-- Posted by Brett Favre on Fri, May 22, 2009, at 10:35 PM

$20,000???

Bonded out with stolen money!

-- Posted by public eye on Sun, May 24, 2009, at 7:43 PM

jdl.7971

Read the first line of the article. Good Lord!

"The four individuals charged with bank fraud and money laundering earlier this week have been released after signing an agreement with federal prosecutors."

...not even in Bedford County.

-- Posted by SirJim on Wed, May 27, 2009, at 5:27 AM

The article didn't say what banks got hit for the bad loans?

-- Posted by Lex4990 on Tue, Jun 2, 2009, at 6:31 PM

When fraud happens,

Variations of the lie continues on in order to prevent the truth from being found out.

Thus more scheming occurs, more "let's get our story straight discussions," and even more lies are schemed up in order to continue to stay ahead of the truth... to prevent being found out.

When fraud happens, it's a downhill slide, creating more and more devastation as it continues. Trees may get knocked down, or maybe even buildings. Mean words are slung around... accusations filled with hate...

What about the innocent who are made to suffer, when they had no part of the cheating process... but became a victim of the greed from someone who thought they could cheat "Good" people and get away with it.

-- Posted by Lex4990 on Wed, Jun 3, 2009, at 4:35 PM