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Housing scam goes federal, nets 40 indictments
By Danny Gallagher, dgallagher@acnpapers.com
A Florida man convicted in Collin County of scamming thousands of dollars from McKinney homeowners is now facing a federal indictment.
John Barry, the owner and operated of the TKI Group and JAB Consulting in Winter Garden, Fla. is one of 32 defendants named in an indictment in the U.S. Eastern District of Texas court that includes 16 counts of mail and wire fraud and money laundering. 366th District Judge Greg Brewer handed down a 25-year sentence to Barry last year on a first-degree felony charge of money laundering for his role in a mortgage fraud scheme involving homes in the Stonebridge subdivision.
Barry is accused of using 10 homes on Hills Creek Drive sometime before December 2006 to dupe homeowners into paying more than the home’s actual worth. Investigators believe he would purchase the property near the actual market value and use fraudulent appraisals to sell the home at an inflated price.
They each received a first-degree felony indictment of using false statements to obtain property/credit last May, according to Collin County court records.
Once Barry had an interested buyer willing to give them the money for the false price, he would take the money under the agreement he would use the proceeds to repair the property and perform upkeep on the home.
Federal investigators also believed at the time that Barry has committed similar home scams across the city and the state that involve at least 50 other homes, but could not confirm or deny the existence of any additional investigations.
The new indictment consists of the same scam but on a statewide scale. The indictment identifies 114 homes located in Allen, Arlington, Cedar Hill, Coppell, Corinth, Cypress, Dallas, Flower Mound, Fort Worth, Frisco, Granbury, Heath, Highland Village, Houston, Keller, Lantana, Lewisville, Little Elm, Lubbock, Magnolia, McKinney, Plano, Roanoke, Southlake, Spring, The Woodlands, and Willis.
Barry again stands accused of defrauding lending institutions by convincing them to approve loans for mortgages for homes with inflated property values, according to the indictment.
If Barry and his fellow defendants are convicted of the federal charges, he could face up to two 20 year terms in a federal prison for the conspiracy and mail fraud charges and a possible additional 10 years for each money laundering charge.
U.S. Attorney John Bales said he hopes Barry's case will prevent other mortgage and financial scams from increasing in scope.
“This indictment brings to light a criminal scheme that is quite breathtaking in its scope and beyond disturbing as far as the boldness of the fraud," Bales said in a released statement. "The agents have done a remarkable job putting together this investigation and we look forward to presenting all of the evidence in court. Hopefully, others involved in mortgage fraud will be taking notice – we will be relentless in discovering, exposing and holding accountable those who have committed similar crimes.”
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