iStock illustration
A former Massachusetts real estate attorney was sentenced to more than six years in prison for operating, along with his wife, multiple mortgage fraud schemes that affected several lenders.
Barry Wayne Plunkett Jr., 62, and Nancy Plunkett, 57, both of Hyannisport, were sentenced last week in Boston federal court. Barry Plunkett was sentenced to 78 months in prison and five years of supervised release, while Nancy Plunkett received a sentence of one year and one day in prison and five years of supervised release, according to a statement from the U.S. attorney’s office.
Barry Plunkett, who was disbarred in 2017, once owned and operated the Plunkett Law Firm, where Nancy Plunkett was his office assistant and paralegal.
Prosecutors say the Plunketts were involved in several bank fraud schemes, including one that lasted from September 2012 to July 2016 where the duo defrauded six mortgage lenders and 14 homeowners.
While handling the closings for new mortgage loans to refinance residential properties, the Plunketts told the mortgage lenders that preexisting mortgages were paid off from the new loan proceeds. But the Plunketts did not pay off the prior liens and instead converted more than $1 million in payoff funds for their own purposes, the statement said.
In another bank fraud scheme that lasted from April 2015 through March 2018, the Plunketts used various names, entities and false documents to obtain three successive mortgage loans on their Hyannisport home, the statement said. The loans were for $412,000, $470,000 and $1.2 million, and the couple pledged as collateral a property in Hyannisport that was held in a family trust with Barry Plunkett listed as one of three beneficiaries.
Barry and Nancy Plunkett both provided false documents to the lenders, the statement said, including false title reports and other records indicating the property was free and clear of existing mortgage liens. Prosecutors said they also forged documents in the names of other people.
The Plunketts also told a lender that Nancy Plunkett was a single woman who was living in Wellesley and purchasing the property in her maiden name as a business investment, the statement said, but the couple had been married since 2014, and the property was their residence.
Barry Plunkett had pleaded guilty in March to five counts of bank fraud, one count of aggravated identity theft and one count of tax evasion, while Nancy Plunkett had pleaded guilty to five counts of bank fraud.
In addition to prison sentences, Barry Plunkett was ordered to pay restitution of $3,236,466 and forfeiture of $3,221,403, while Nancy Plunkett was ordered to pay restitution of $3,054,759, jointly and severally with her husband, and forfeiture of $3,221,403.
