Fayetteville Resident Pleads Guilty to Conspiracy to Commit Wire fraud

RALEIGH—United States Attorney George E.B. Holding announced that in federal court here today TERRI J. HART, 46, pled guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 371, which has a maximum penalty of up to five years imprisonment and/or a $250,000 fine followed by three years of supervised release.

The Indictment alleged that from October 31, 2003 through July 1, 2005, HART and, co—defendant, and April Hall, 45, also of Fayetteville, North Carolina, through Carriage Crossings, Inc., and ABC Trading, Inc., with employees of the corporations, Thomas Walter Thacker, Jr., 68, of Fayetteville, North Carolina, and Shiquandra Ann Brooks, 35, of Hope Mills, North Carolina, and others, conspired to obtain 100% financing for people purchasing lots and mobile homes from the defendants and the corporations they represented, who would not otherwise qualify for such financing. Although the means varied between the properties sold, all sales involved inflated property values and false representations to potential lenders that either a down payment had been made by the purchaser, which in fact had not been made, or that a second mortgage was taken back by the seller for the difference between the first mortgage and the inflated value, however, this second mortgage had not actually occurred or been collected on by the seller. The defendants faxed false and fraudulent information concerning each property closing to the closing attorney, the lender, and the mortgage broker.

Mr. Holding commented, “Mortgage fraud is on the rise. As such, the Department of Justice has made this problem a priority. We will continue to seek out those that inflate home values and make false representations, thereby placing our financial system in jeopardy and taking advantage of those trying to obtain their own home by honest means.”

HART’S sentencing is set for June 8, 2009.

Thacker, who pled guilty to conspiring to commit wire fraud was sentenced February 25, 2009, term of court to a three year period of probation, 90 days of home detention with electronic monitoring, and a $6,000 fine. Brooks, who also pled guilty to conspiracy charge, is scheduled for sentencing the May 4, 2009, term of court.

Investigation of the case was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation, and the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of North Carolina.