National Appraisal Instructor Convicted for Lying to Financial Institution

RALEIGH—The United States Attorney’s Office announced that in federal court today Lary Max McDaniel, 69, pled guilty before Chief United States District Judge James C. Dever, III to making false statements to influence a federally insured financial institution and aiding and abetting, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Sections 1014 and 2.

According to the January 19, 2012 superseding indictment, between 2002 and 2006, an individual identified as JTW was operating a company identified as AP LLC. JTW promised investors that he and AP LLC would use investor money to purchase homes at a low value, renovate the homes, and then sell them to first-time home buyers for a higher value. McDaniel, a licensed real estate appraiser residing in West Virginia, and Jackie Gale Weaver, Jr., an unlicensed individual who worked in the offices of AP LLC prepared false appraisal reports for JTW and AP LLC. These false appraisals were related to properties that were supposed to have been renovated as part of JTW’s agreement with investors.

On the appraisals, McDaniel was listed as the North Carolina appraiser who performed each appraisal. In fact, however, McDaniel did not visit the properties, nor did he create the appraisal documents. Instead, the information that was listed in the appraisal reports, including measurements, sketches, and photographs, all came from third parties. In many instances, photographs of alleged renovations were supplied directly by agents of JTW and AP LLC. McDaniel also did not draft, print, or execute the appraisals that bore his name and official seal as Weaver performed those tasks, often from within the offices of AP LLC. Nevertheless, McDaniel invoiced and received payment for many of the appraisals. The superseding indictment alleges that between 2002 and 2006, Weaver created and McDaniel authorized approximately 200 false appraisals in the manner described above.

McDaniel pled guilty to making false statements and aiding abetting false statements on February 5, 2005 on an appraisal report relating to a loan from First National Bank of Arizona for a property at 2202 Church Street in Rocky Mount, North Carolina. The appraisal report falsely indicated, among other things, that McDaniel had completed a physical inspection of the property, sketched the property, taken pictures of the property, and interviewed the owner when, in fact, he did none of those things.

At sentencing, set for the September 17, 2012, term of court, McDaniel faces up to 30 years’ imprisonment followed by up to five years’ supervised release and a fine of up to $250,000.

Weaver pled guilty September 21, 2011 to conspiring to make false statements to influence federally insured financial institutions. He is currently scheduled to be sentenced on August 6, 2012.

Investigation of this case was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the United States Postal Inspection Service, the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Office of the Inspector General, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation’s Office of the Inspector General, with the assistance of the North Carolina Appraisal Board. Assistant United States Attorney William M. Gilmore is prosecuting the case.