Seven get sentences in $12.6M mortgage fraud scheme

Two people from Bunkie, apparently a man and wife, were among seven people who were sentenced last week in connection with a mortgage fraud scheme near Kansas City.

Gerald Williams, 49, of Bunkie, La., received five years of probation, six months of home detention and 2,000 hours of community service, along with $238,008 in restitution.

Judith Williams, 49, also of Bunkie, received five years of probation, four months of home detention, 100 hours of community service and $238,008 in restitution.

Sentencing was handed down last Thursday to the Williams who were among seven defendants who had been charged in a $12.6 million mortgage fraud scheme in Lee’s Summit and Raymore, Missouri.

The scheme ensnared 25 upscale subdivisions in those towns.

The fraud generally had defendants buying and selling homes in those subdivisions, obtaining them with bogus mortgage materials, then keeping the kickbacks from the extra proceeds.

The other seven people who were sentenced:

• Jerome Howard, 41, of Anaheim, Calif., received three years in federal prison, a $5.9 million restitution order and $900,731 in forfeiture.

• Stefan Guerra, 31, of Lee’s Summit, Mo. received a year and a day in federal prison and a $2.4 million restitution order.

• Michael Conrad Smith, 49, of Lancaster, Calif., received five years of probation and six months of home detention, 4,000 hours of community service and $640,289 in restitution.

• James Simpson, 41, of Lee’s Summit, Mo., received a year and a day in federal prison, along with $495,578 in restitution.

• Cheryl Romero, 52, of Santa Fe Springs, Calif., received five years of probation and six months of home detention, along with 4,000 hours of community service and $488,102 in restitution.

scheme - Kansas City Business Journal