A Maryland man who owned and operated a homebuilding company will spend the next year in prison for his role a mortgage fraud scheme that defrauded a mortgage lender of more than $2.4 million.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Maryland, Timothy Ritchie, age 44, of Annapolis, Maryland, received a sentence of a year and a day in prison, followed by 12 months of home detention with electronic monitoring as part of three years of supervised release for his role in a scheme surrounding the purchase of three lots of land.
Ritchie was the owner and operator of Richland Homes, and was in the business of building, purchasing and selling homes.
According to his plea agreement, on July 7, 2005, Ritchie attended a residential closing for his purchase of three lots located at 24058 St. Michael’s Road in St. Michael’s, Maryland.
John Davis, a real estate agent, conducted the closing, and listed Ritchie on the HUD statement as the buyer/ borrower, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a statement.
According to court documents, the HUD statement falsely stated that Ritchie provided $1,153,937.23 in cash at the closing.
But Ritchie did not actually provide any funds to Davis at the closing.
As a result of the false statement, Ritchie fraudulently obtained approximately $2,445,102 from a mortgage lender by wire transfer to fund the settlement, court document showed.
As part of his plea agreement, Ritchie is also to pay restitution of $1,385,444.83.
Davis, age 55, of Chestertown, Maryland, previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit mail fraud and wire fraud arising from his participation in the scheme, and is scheduled to receive his sentence on March 31, 2016. Davis admitted that the loss arising from his participation in the scheme is between $400,000 and $1 million.
The sentence was announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein; Deputy Inspector General for Investigations Rene Febles of the Federal Housing Finance Agency Office of Inspector General; and Special Agent in Charge Fran Mace, of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Office of Inspector General.
