WV Cracks Down On Mortgage Fraud

{West Virginia}...Federal investigators in West Virginia say they're making progress in fighting mortgage fraud. U.S. Attorney Booth Goodwin says federal law enforcement on Monday arrested Raymond Paul Morris, 51, of South Weber, Utah on charges connected to alleged fraud in Putnam County. Federal officials say Deborah Joyce, 38, of Hurricane and Michael Hurd, 37, of Utah, were involved in a scheme in which they would secure false, inflated appraisals of homes in the Stonegate subdivision before enticing a Utah real estate investment club, 100X, to buy the properties in an effort to 'flip' the homes for quick profit. In April, Joyce was sentenced to 46 months in prison for her involvement.  Her husband, Todd, 38, was sentenced to 18 months behind bars. In an unrelated but similar scheme, U.S. District Judge Irene Berger sentenced Donald Carter II, 38, of Poca, and Roy Leon Cooper, 56, of Hico, to 51 months in prison Wednesday for their involvement in fraudulent practices in the Lamplighter Valley subdivision in Lewisburg in Greenbrier County. The judge also ordered the defendants to pay $1.9 million each in restitution after they each pleaded guilty in January to bank fraud and tax evasion. In 2005, Carter bought 23 undeveloped lots in the subdivision and sought financing from United Bank to build several homes. Cooper, who worked as a loan officer at United Bank, helped Carter circumvent the rules by listing friends and family members as straw buyers. Through the process, Carter secured 16 loans worth $4 million, but never built any homes. Carter drew down $1.9 million from those loans, but used it to pay off gambling debts. Cooper and Carter also admitted to falsifying several income tax returns during the mid-2000s.