Sebastian Restum, a Detroit area businessman, was sentenced to 51 months in prison today and ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $4,992,082 by federal judge Marianne Battani for the role he played in a conspiracy to commit mortgage fraud, announced United States Attorney Barbara L. McQuade.

U.S. Attorney McQuade was joined in the announcement by Paul Abbate, Special Agent in Charge of the Detroit, Michigan office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

The evidence in the case demonstrated that Restum recruited straw buyers to purchase high dollar properties, then facilitated the falsification of material information on mortgage loan applications with aggregate value in excess of $8 million, beginning in 2006. The falsified information included inflated statements of assets, fraudulent income documentation, false verification of employment and false verification of bank account balances.

Restum earlier pleaded guilty of conspiracy to commit bank fraud in a plea agreement with the government.

The case was investigated by the FBI, and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Graham Teall.