Las Vegas Woman Sentenced to Over Two Years in Prison for Mortgage Fraud Crimes

LAS VEGAS—A Las Vegas woman who pleaded guilty to submitting six fraudulent mortgage loan applications during 2004 to 2005, was sentenced today to 27 months in prison, five years of supervised release, and was ordered to pay approximately $1 million in restitution to five federally insured financial institutions, announced Daniel G. Bogden, United States Attorney for the District of Nevada.

Gail Bilyeu, 54, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Kent J. Dawson. Bilyeu pleaded guilty in June 2010 to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and six counts of wire fraud. She was indicted in November 2009 along with co-defendant Malcolm Childress, who also pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and was sentenced on September 29, 2010, to 15 months in prison, five years of supervised release, and was ordered to pay $964,250 in restitution and to forfeit $2.6 million to the government.

From about October 2004 to December 2005, Bilyeu and Childress participated in a conspiracy to submit fraudulent mortgage loan applications to financial institutions. Bilyeu recruited and paid straw buyers to purchase homes in Las Vegas. These straw buyers did not intend to occupy the homes. Bilyeu caused false information to be included on the straw buyers’ loan applications, so the straw buyers would qualify for loans for which they would not otherwise qualify. Bilyeu also caused the loan applications to be forwarded to the financial institutions for funding of the mortgages. In total, six mortgage loan applications were sent to financial institutions by Bilyeu and Childress. The loans totaled about $2.6 million, and were used to purchase six homes at the following addresses:

8163 Retriever Avenue

;

8912 Martin Downs Place

;

8829 Lauderhill Street

; and

5487 Apron Court

, in Las Vegas; and

2287 Keego Harbor Street

and

3120 Kookaburra Way

, in Henderson, Nevada.

The cases were investigated by the FBI and prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Brian Pugh.

Persons who have information concerning potential mortgage fraud may contact the Southern Nevada Mortgage Fraud Hotline at (702) 584-5555.

This article was sponsored by Police Books.