A federal judge in Illinois has sentenced a former loan originator to 18 months in prison for his role in a multimillion-dollar reverse mortgage and home repair fraud scheme.

Gary Bohn, who previously worked for American Fidelity Financial Services, pleaded guilty to charges stemming from the scheme, which also involved other loan officers, brokers and an appraisal management company. Together, they obtained homeowners’ reverse mortgage funds under the pretense of financing home repairs but ultimately diverted the money.

Bohn held a mortgage loan originator license from 2012 to 2018 and pleaded guilty to mail and wire fraud. He entered a plea agreement in January 2024, and his state license was revoked in July of that year. An attorney for Bohn hasn’t replied to HousingWire‘s request for comments.

According to court documents, Bohn’s sentence — announced Wednesday — was shorter than the 28 months requested by federal prosecutors. He cooperated with investigators and has repaid roughly 7% of the $300,000 in restitution ordered. Law360 first reported the sentencing.

The same scheme also led to a 17-year federal prison sentence in January for Mark Steven Diamond, who was ordered to pay $2.7 million in restitution by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.

“Mark Diamond repeatedly preyed on the elderly for years,” Morris Pasqual, the acting U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, said in January. “He damaged the most vulnerable in our community, both financially and personally. We will continue to work with our law enforcement partners to hold accountable anyone who seeks to deceive elderly homeowners through fraud.”

According to prosecutors, Diamond fraudulently caused lenders to issue reverse mortgage loans to elderly homeowners who either did not consent to the loans or did so under false pretenses. He diverted the loan funds for his own use by convincing title companies to issue checks directly to him rather than to the homeowners.

Diamond targeted victims — ranging in age from 62 to 97 — based on their home equity levels and financial sophistication, authorities said. Diamond defrauded the lenders and homeowners out of $7 million.

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