Delaware County Mortgage Broker Sentenced on Loan Fraud Charges
| U.S. Attorney’s Office February 12, 2014 |
Thomas C. Phelan, 35, of Wayne, Pennsylvania, was sentenced today to 33 months in prison for his leadership of a mortgage fraud conspiracy involving nearly $1 million in fraudulent loan proceeds. Phelan established Phelan Mortgage Associates (PMA), a mortgage brokerage business based in Feasterville, Pennsylvania. From August 2006 until February 2009, Phelan worked with PMA employees and others to defraud lending institutions out of nearly $1 million. On October 15, 2013, Phelan pleaded guilty to all counts of an indictment charging him with conspiracy to commit loan and wire fraud, three counts of loan fraud, and one count of wire fraud.
At sentencing, U.S. District Court Judge Robert F. Kelly heard testimony from individual victims of Phelan’s loan fraud, calling the scheme “a heartless crime.” In addition to the 33-month prison sentence, the court ordered that the defendant pay restitution of $850,670 to two lenders and a mandatory assessment of $500.
The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Mary E. Crawley and Joan E. Burnes.