The former head of Keyworth Mortgage Funding Group of New Mexico and Arizona is facing 13 months of prison for bank fraud, the ""_Albuquerque Journal_"":http://www.abqjournal.com/main/ reported Wednesday.
A federal judge in Santa Fe ordered Manuel Garcia to pay $585,243.59 to US Bank of Albuquerque, formerly known as First Community Bank. Garcia was also sentenced to 13 months in prison followed by five years of supervised probation.
According to U.S. Attorney Kenneth J. Gonzales, Garcia was indicted and charged with six counts of bank fraud on June 7 of last year. At the time, he was president of Keyworth Mortgage Funding Group, a New Mexico and Arizona-based business that made mortgage loans and sold them to investors.
The indictment charges Garcia with illegally obtaining money from First Community Bank by falsely saying it was to be used for new residential mortgage loans. In actuality, Garcia used the money to pay Keyworth's debt to Fannie Mae. He pleaded guilty to six counts in the indictment in October and admitted to devising a plan to submit requests to First Community for advances for non-existent mortgages. In this scheme, Garcia used names, addresses, and request loan amounts from his company's prior clients.
Garcia admitted to receiving six advances (totaling more than $1,279,650) for his fake requests. He had repaid $535,450 back with interest to First Community, so that amount was not included in the required restitution.
Garcia currently lives in Los Angeles. He was ordered to surrender to a federal correctional institution to be designated by the U.S. Bureau of Prisons to serve his sentence.