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Home > Blogs > Dayton Courts: Legal and crime news > Archives > 2009 > November > 12 > Entry
Former loan officer and talk show host indicted in mortgage fraud case
DAYTON — Three men, including a former loan officer at the Centerville branch of Republic Bank and a local radio talk show host, have been indicted on charges concerning a mortgage scheme that involved $4.5 million in fraudulent loans.
James L. Mack, 64, the former loan officer, as well as Walter A. Millat, 70, and his son William E. Millat, 49, are accused of fraudulently orchestrating the purchase and sale of more than 100 properties in the Dayton area between 2001 and 2006, according to Carter M. Stewart, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio.
Between April 2005 and May 2006, William Millat hosted a Saturday morning radio call-in talk show entitled “Real Estate Investing for Everyone” on a Dayton radio station.
All three suspects are from Dayton. Stewart announced the indictment on Thursday, Nov. 12, two days after the grand jury issued it.
The indictment charges each man with one count of conspiracy, four counts of mail fraud and four counts of bank fraud. Each count is punishable by up to 30 years imprisonment.
The indictment also charges the Millats with conspiracy to launder money, punishable by up to 20 years imprisonment. The indictment also seeks forfeiture of the proceeds of the scheme.
The Millats, who operated various real estate businesses and corporations, recruited investors through newspaper ads in Dayton, New York City and Indianapolis to participate in a plan to buy and renovate single family homes in Dayton. Investors were promised a 50 percent return on their investment if they would invest for three months, according to court records.
The Millats directed potential buyers to Mack. Prospective buyers were promised that they would receive the properties without putting any money down, receive a check at closing, and that the properties would be renovated, rented, and generating positive cash flow without any cost to the buyers. The scheme victimized at least 12 separate individual property investors, according to records.
The three allegedly used the buyers’ information and created false documents to obtain all the mortgages from Republic Bank, netting more than $2 million in proceeds for themselves through the scheme, according to records.
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