Missouri Residential Real Estate Lawyers

Real Estate Investor Sentenced To 12 Years For $19 Million Mortgage Fraud

Bradley J. Schlozman, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that a real estate investor was sentenced in federal court today for orchestrating the largest mortgage fraud scheme ever prosecuted in the Western District of Missouri.

Brent Michael Barber, 42, of Belton, Mo., was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Fernando J. Gaitan this morning to 12 years and seven months in federal prison without parole. The court also ordered Barber to pay $11,206,419 in restitution to the victims of his mortgage fraud schemes.

"This defendant tore through low-income neighborhoods like a hurricane," Schlozman said, "wreaking financial havoc on individual victims and financial institutions, and leaving behind a devastating trail of residential blight. Fortunately, his criminal career has been brought to a halt, and he is being held accountable for the damage he inflicted on the community."

According to Schlozman, Barber's mortgage fraud schemes involved loans on more than 300 properties, totaling more than $19 million. "More than 80 investors were recruited into the scheme, most of whom suffered financially as well as mentally and emotionally," Schlozman said. The actual loss for the financial institutions that were defrauded by Barber totaled more than $11 million.

On Feb. 23, 2006, Barber pleaded guilty to 104 counts contained in two federal indictments. Those indictments, as well as a third federal indictment for which Barber was convicted by a jury, involve separate schemes to defraud mortgage lending companies of millions of dollars. Read more at fbi.gov

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