Lee's Summit Man Sentenced for $3.7 Million Mortgage Fraud

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Tammy Dickinson, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that a Lee’s Summit, Mo., man was sentenced in federal court today for his role in a more than $3.7 million mortgage fraud scheme.

Albert William Roberts III, 68, of Lee’s Summit, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Brian C. Wimes to four years in federal prison without parole. The court also ordered Roberts to pay $1,992,221 in restitution.

On May 13, 2016, Roberts was found guilty at trial of four counts of wire fraud. Roberts, a retired Kansas City, Mo., school teacher, obtained a total of $3,758,420 from mortgage lenders and title companies from 2002 to 2007 for the purchase of a dozen properties from Penrod Homes, Inc. – three properties in Lee’s Summit, six properties in Peculiar, Mo., and three properties in Greenwood, Mo. Most of the homes were priced in the upper $100,000 or lower $200,000 range; the most expensive was a home on about two acres for $1.3 million.

Although Roberts was found guilty of wire fraud specifically in connection with two of those transactions, evidence introduced during the trial indicated that Roberts’ fraud extended to 10 additional properties. Roberts obtained all 12 mortgage loans by material false and fraudulent representations and omissions of facts. He structured the purchases of the homes in such a way that he received $807,203 in kickbacks that were not disclosed to the lenders.

This case was prosecuted by Senior Litigation Consultant Gregg R. Coonrod and Assistant U.S. Attorney Kathleen Mahoney. It was investigated by the FBI.