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California Man Sentenced to 51 Months for Fraud

The Office of the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program [1] (SIGTARP) announced [2] that Steven Pitchersky of Rancho Mirage, California was sentenced to 51 months in federal prison for a scheme to defraud GMAC Inc., since rebranded as Ally.

Through his fraudulent actions, the company incurred losses of approximately $5.3 million. In addition to the prison term, Pitchersky is ordered to pay restitution in the amount of roughly $3.2 million, serve five years of supervised release, and a $100 special assessment.

"Greed got the best of Pitchersky, and for his crimes, he will spend the next 51 months in federal prison," said Christy Romero, Special Inspector General. "Through his mortgage origination company, Pitchersky ran a $5.3 million mortgage fraud scheme that caused millions of dollars in losses to Ally Financial, which still owes billions in TARP funds."

Pitchersky operated Nationwide Mortgage Concepts (NMC), a California Mortgage Lender. Between 2009 and 2011, Ally was the warehouse lender for thousands of mortgages loans. NMC borrowed from a $10 million warehouse line of credit to refinance first mortgages held by other institutions.

Pitchersky misrepresented himself to Ally in order to secure the warehouse line of credit, including a false representation that NMC already had another $10 million warehouse line of credit with another company. The company, "MPL," was a fake, with a contact number listed for a "Rick Jay" that dialed to Pitchersky's cell phone.

He funneled the funds through a third-party title company, "Hanover," which was actually created by Pitchersky, allowing him to have complete control over money NMC acquired from Ally's warehouse line.

"Between December 2010 and January 2011, Ally advanced NMC approximately $5.3 million to pay off 23 first mortgages for NMC clients. NMC failed to use these funds to pay off these mortgages and instead used the money to pay off first mortgages for other customers," SIGTARP said.

In total, $17.2 billion in federal taxpayer bailout funds were invested in Ally Financial through TARP. Pitchersky pled guilty to wire fraud in connection with the scheme.