Man gets 20 years in final sentencing of mortgage fraud scheme

By Bethany Barnes

Thursday, April 10, 2014 | 8:45 p.m.

The case of a $15 million mortgage fraud scheme came to a close today with the final sentencing in the 10-member operation.

U.S. District Judge Gloria Navarro sentenced Jabari Marshall, 36, of Las Vegas, to 20 years in prison for his role in trying to steal $35 million in fraudulent mortgage loans, according to the release by the U.S. Justice Department.

A jury convicted him in September 2013 of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud.

The scheme involved the purchase of 30 homes in the Las Vegas area between 2005 and 2007, with the mortgages valued at roughly $35 million, according to the release.

Once mortgage loans were approved, the defendants disbursed money from the loan transactions for their own use, according to the release.

The defendants typically rented the homes and resold them for a profit, using the same scheme, according to the release.

They then defaulted on the loans, leading to approximately $15 million in losses for the lenders, according to the release.

Marshall must pay roughly $250,000 in restitution as well as forfeit up to $6.1 million in assets he gained from the crimes, according to the release. The scheme wasn’t Marshall’s first run-in with the law. He had a long criminal history, including two prior federal convictions in Nevada for other fraud-related crimes, according to the release. He was on federal supervised release when he committed this crime.

The man authorities believed to be the ringleader, Lloyd Gardley, was sentenced in December to 11 years in prison.

Lloyd Gardley, Candis Gardley, and Marshall recruited others into the con, according to the release.

Other conspirators, who have all been convicted and sentenced, included two loan officers, two real estate agents, an escrow assistant, an accountant, and an individual who provided false verifications of rent, according to the release.

“Since 2008, hundreds of persons have been prosecuted by the Nevada United States Attorney’s Office for this type of crime,” said U.S. Attorney Daniel Bogden, in a statement. “By now, the message should be clear that if you get convicted of committing a mortgage fraud offense, you will spend a significant time in federal prison.”