Philadelphia Man Charged for Role in Multi-Million-Dollar Mortgage Fraud Scheme

PHILADELPHIA—David Anthony Holman, 46, of Philadelphia, was charged today by information with one count of conspiracy to commit loan and wire fraud and one count of loan fraud for his participation in an alleged mortgage fraud ring, announced United States Attorney Zane David Memeger. Holman is the 13th defendant charged in the alleged scheme involving a real estate company known as KREW in Philadelphia. The information also seeks the criminal forfeiture of over $225,000 from Holman.

According to the information, between May 2004 and February 2009, primarily in the West Philadelphia section of the city of Philadelphia, the defendants and KREW Settlement Services handled more than 100 fraudulent mortgage loans, obtaining more than $20 million in fraudulent loan proceeds. Holman is alleged to have directly participated in helping to secure a $225,250 mortgage loan from First Tennessee Bank (via its subsidiary, First Horizon Home Loan Corporation) on 29 W. Pomona Street in Philadelphia by recruiting another person to serve as the straw buyer for that property. It is further alleged that Holman directed the straw buyer to make false statements in the loan application and in verbal statements to the lender.

The other 12 co-conspirators charged in this district with participating in the same mortgage fraud ring include: Kevin Joseph Franklin, Roderick L. Foxworth, Sr., Eric Sijohn Brown, and Walter Alston Brown, Jr., who owned and operated KREW; and Cynthia Evette Brown, Francine Shanique Cross, Willie G. Manley Jr., Eric Ponder, Rashika J. Moon, Dontaya S. Devore, Mark Murphy, and Gregory Christopher Thornton, who worked with or for KREW. A 14th co-conspirator, John William Polosky, a mortgage broker who is alleged to have knowingly brokered fraudulent loan packages for the KREW co-conspirators, has been charged in the Western District of Pennsylvania.

If convicted, Holman faces a maximum possible sentence of 35 years in prison, five years of supervised release, a fine of $1.25 million or twice the value of the property involved in the transactions, and a $200 special assessment.

The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation Division, and the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Office of Inspector General. It is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Michael S. Lowe.

An indictment or information is an accusation. A defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.