FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
FRIDAY - July 30, 2010
SMITHFIELD MANUFACTURED HOME DEALERSHIP
PRESIDENT PLEADS GUILTY TO FEDERAL CHARGE
WILMINGTON - United States Attorney George E.B. Holding announced that in federal court on July 28, 2010, HAROLD AUBREY OVERBY, 44, of Goldsboro, North Carolina, pled guilty before United States District Judge Terrence W. Boyle to conspiring to commit mail, wire, and bank fraud, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 371.
A Superseding Criminal Information was filed on July 22, 2010. According to the Information, OVERBY, president of HALO of North Carolina, Inc., and doing business as Hunter Creek Homes, a manufactured home dealership located in Smithfield, North Carolina, entered into an agreement to defraud Southern Bank and Trust. From January, 2004, to November, 2006, OVERBY, needing capital to avoid bankruptcy, obtained funds from SBT by supplying false and fraudulent statements and information in relation to his customers’ construction loans. These resulted in numerous distributions of cash, which OVERBY converted to his own interests. Additionally, OVERBY made fraudulent statements concerning his income, debt, and collateral, to obtain three other loans from SBT. All of these loans went into default, ultimately resulting in losses to SBT in excess of $300,000.
At sentencing, scheduled for the November, 2010, term of court, OVERBY faces up to five years’ imprisonment followed by up to three supervised release and a fine of up to $250,000.
This case was investigated and prosecuted by this office’s Mortgage Fraud Task Force, a group of federal and state law enforcement agencies whose goal is to fast-track mortgage fraud prosecutions in this District. The investigation of this particular case was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation. Assistant United States Attorney William Gilmore represented the government.
News releases are available on the U. S. Attorney’s web page at www.usdoj.gov/usao/nce within 48 hours of release.
