Man gets 11 years in $15 million mortgage fraud scheme

By Tovin Lapan

Friday, Dec. 20, 2013 | 1:46 p.m.

A man who pleaded guilty in a $15 million mortgage fraud scheme was sentenced this week to 11 years in federal prison.

U.S. District Judge Gloria Navarro on Wednesday sentenced Lloyd Gardley, 60, who is in federal custody in Pahrump, after he pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud, mail fraud and wire fraud, one count of bank fraud, and two counts of mail fraud.

In addition to the prison term, Gardley must pay $1.4 million in restitution and will be under supervision for five years after his release.

In all, 10 people were charged and convicted in the scheme involving straw buyers and the submission of fraudulent paperwork to obtain mortgage loans, according to a news release from the U.S. Department of Justice.

The scheme involved the purchase of 30 homes in the Las Vegas area between 2005 and 2007, officials said. Gardley was considered to be the leader of the conspiracy and recruited others into the scheme, officials said.

Once mortgage loans were approved, the defendants disbursed money from the loan transactions for their own use, officials said.

The defendants typically would rent the homes and resold them for a profit, using the same scheme, officials said.

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

“Gardley is one of two individuals who were sentenced to prison this week for committing mortgage fraud in Nevada,” U.S. Attorney for Nevada Daniel Bogden said in a statement. “Unfortunately, these crimes are not victimless and the damage to the community is lasting. The mortgage fraud scheme artificially inflated home values that, in turn, raised purchase prices of comparable homes, forcing innocent homebuyers to pay well above true market value for their homes.”