FORMER MARYVILLE MAN SENTENCED ON MORTGAGE LOAN FRAUD SCHEME

A. Courtney Cox, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Illinois, announced that on September 11, 2009, KEITH L. PITTMAN, age 54, formerly of Maryville, Illinois, was sentenced in United States District Court, East St. Louis Division, to four (4) years of imprisonment and a five (5) year term of supervised release following his February 18, 2009 plea of guilty to a one-count indictment charging him with mortgage loan fraud.

The June 19, 2008 indictment coincided with a nationwide mortgage fraud takedown dubbed “Operation Malicious Mortgage.” PITTMAN was one of more than 400 people who were charged in operation “Operation Malicious Mortgage.”

PITTMAN was convicted and sentenced for making a false statement to a financial institution in conjunction with a mortgage fraud scheme to obtain residential real estate through a series of false statements and fraudulent transactions which enabled him to obtain a subprime mortgage to purchase property without making an actual down payment, while simultaneously exposing the lending institution to an undisclosed, increased risk of default. No payments were ever made on the mortgage, and the property was foreclosed upon. The District Court also ordered PITTMAN to pay HomeEq Mortgage Servicing Corporation $142,000 in restitution.

PITTMAN has been employed for more than 20 years of his life as a pastor at churches throughout the St. Louis area.

The investigation was conducted by agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation along with the Internal Revenue Service. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Liam Coonan and Steven D. Weinhoeft.