Lawyers in Fla. and Nev. Charged in Mortgage Fraud Cases
Lawyers in Florida and Nevada have been indicted for alleged participation in unrelated mortgage frauds.
John Evans III, 31, was suspended from practice on an emergency basis last year reports the Naples Daily News.
However, attorney Stanley Walton, 52, is still actively licensed, although his listed office phone has been disconnected, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.
Evans, who is federally charged with mortgage fraud and tax evasion in an indictment unsealed this week, is accused of submitting a mortgage application with false information in order to get a $616,250 mortgage on a property in Cape Coral. He allegedly said he made $17,500 monthly and claimed to have liquid assets of over $300,000, then paid a $108,750 deposit with a fake cashier’s check.
Walton is accused, along with a loan officer, of conspiracy to commit bank, mail and wire fraud. He reportedly was not acting as an attorney, however, when he allegedly worked with his co-defendant to recruit straw buyers with good credit to buy houses. He is accused of pocketing some profits from fraudulent mortgage applications, while she reportedly made commissions from the purchase of the homes.
Walton has no attorney disciplinary history but is being investigated, the article says, concerning a judgment of more than $22 million entered against the lawyer last year in an unrelated probate matter.
