NY mortgage broker gets 60 months of jail time for fraud

The former manager of a New York-based mortgage brokerage firm was sentenced yesterday to 60 months in prison, after pleading guilty to his role in a sub-prime mortgage scheme involving residential mortgages totaling more than $10 million, U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara’s office announced yesterday.

From 2005 to 2007, Micah Meyers submitted false or misleading applications and supporting documentation through his company, Bridgewater Funding, for home mortgages that would have otherwise not been approved.

He identified troubled or easily-resalable properties for sale in New York City and Long Island and recruited friends and family to act as “straw buyers” in exchange for a fee. The buyers would then hand control of the properties over to Meyers once the transactions were complete. Meyers often failed to make payments as promised, causing straw buyers to default.

Meyers pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit bank and wire fraud in May 2010.

In addition to 60 months in prison, he was sentenced to three years supervised release and has been issued a fine of $1 million.

Meyers’ attorney Stuart Neal Kaplan, of law firm Kramer, Ali, Fleck, Kaplan & Gelb, was not immediately available for comment. — Katherine Clarke