CAMDEN, NJ—An Alabama resident who was involved in a $15 million mortgage fraud scam was sentenced on Wednesday to 17 years and six months in prison.
Kinard Henson, 43, and 10 other defendants were charged 2012 with various felony crimes involving the use of phony documents and “straw buyers” to make illegal profits on overbuilt condos, according to the U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman.
Hanson is already serving a 15-year sentence for trying to kill a straw buyer in 2008.
A federal judge sentenced Henson for conspiring to defraud financial institutions and laundering stolen funds as part of a mortgage fraud.
Henson, of Ventress, Alabama, had plead guilty before U.S. District Judge Jerome B. Simandle to a second superseding indictment charging him with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering and one count of attempted murder of a witness in a federal case.
According to the documents filed in this case and statements made in court:
- Henson’s conspirators found oceanfront condominiums overbuilt by financially distressed developers and negotiated a buyout price with the sellers.
- They raised the sales prices for the properties—located in Wildwood Crest and North Wildwood, New Jersey, other locations in New Jersey and in Naples, Florida—to be much higher than the buyout price to ensure large profits.
- Other defendants helped conceal the actual sales prices of certain properties through inflated sales contracts and sale and finder’s fee agreements.
- Henson and others recruited straw buyers to purchase certain properties at the inflated rates.
- The straw buyers had good credit scores but lacked the financial resources to qualify for mortgage loans.
- The conspirators created false documents, such as fake W-2 forms, pay stubs, bank statements and investment statements, to make the straw buyers appear more creditworthy than they actually were in order to induce the lenders to make the loans.
- Henson’s conspirators also caused fraudulent mortgage loan applications in the name of the straw buyers, including the supporting documents, to be submitted to mortgage brokers that the brokers knew were false.
- Once the loans were approved and the mortgage lenders sent the loan proceeds in connection with real estate closings, Henson received a portion of the proceeds after his conspirators had money wired or checks deposited into various financial accounts.
- Henson learned of a subpoena seeking documents in connection with a straw buyer’s purchases of real estate properties.
Henson, who had recruited straw buyer Larry Barker, contacted someone to kill him in a wooded area south of Mobile in 2008, according to AL.com
Henson and his cousin lured Barker to the wooded area on the pretense of moving furniture, and Henson’s cousin then shot Barker three times, according to prosecutors, AL.com reported.
Henson pleaded guilty in 2010, but he tried to have his guilty plea withdrawn before being sentenced. Mobile County Circuit Judge James Wood denied that request before handing down the 15-year sentence, according to AL.com