Top Executive at Long Island Mortgage Lender Pleads Guilty To $8.9 Million Fraud

Defendant Misused Money Obtained To Fund Mortgage Loans

Earlier today in federal court in Central Islip, New York, Edward E. Bohm, President of Sales and an undisclosed owner of Long Island mortgage lender Vanguard Funding, LLC (Vanguard), pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit wire fraud and bank fraud in connection with the illegal diversion of more than $8.9 million of warehouse loans that Vanguard had obtained to fund mortgages.  The guilty plea was entered before United States District Judge Sandra J. Feuerstein.  When sentenced, Bohm faces up to 30 years in prison, as well as restitution, criminal forfeiture and a fine.

Richard P. Donoghue, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, William F. Sweeney, Jr., Assistant Director-in-Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, New York Field Office, and Linda A. Lacewell, Acting Superintendent, New York State Department of Financial Services, announced the guilty plea.

According to court filings and the facts presented at the plea proceedings, between August 2015 and March 2017, Bohm engaged in a scheme in which he and others obtained warehouse, or short-term, loans for Vanguard by falsely representing that Vanguard would use the proceeds of those loans to fund mortgages or provide mortgage refinancing for Vanguard’s clients.  Once Vanguard received the loans, however, Bohm, along with others diverted the monies to pay personal expenses and compensation, and to pay off loans they had previously obtained with fraudulent loan submissions for improper purposes.

Earlier, in 2018, Vanguard’s Chief Operating Officer and the Chief Financial Officer entered guilty pleas in connection with this fraud and were sentenced to terms of incarceration.

The government’s case is being handled by the Office’s Business and Securities Fraud Section.  Assistant United States Attorneys Whitman G.S. Knapp and Elizabeth Losey Macchiaverna are handling the prosecution with assistance from Assistant United States Attorney Laura Mantell of the Office’s Asset Forfeiture Section.

The Defendant:

EDWARD E. BOHM

Age: 41

Residence: Nissequogue, New York

E.D.N.Y. Docket No. 18-CR-036 (SJF)