Grand Prairie, Texas, Real Estate Investor Sentenced To Federal Prison For Conspiring To Commit Wire Fraud

FORT WORTH, Texas — A local real estate investor, who operated Steelman Homes, was sentenced today for his role in a wire fraud conspiracy, announced John Parker, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas.

Calvin Richard Ford, 45, most recently of Grand Prairie, Texas, was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Terry R. Means to 37 months in federal prison and ordered to pay $433,849 in restitution to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Ford pleaded guilty on June 18, 2014, to an Information charging one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. He must surrender to the Bureau of Prisons on February 9, 2015.

Ford admitted that he conspired to defraud Colorado Federal Savings Bank. According to documents filed in the case, Ford encouraged people to buy homes as investments, and he told these potential investors that he would arrange to have the homes they purchased rented and would make all of the necessary mortgage payments from the rental proceeds.

Ford purchased the homes and then sold them to investors at an inflated price. To ensure these investors could qualify for the loans they needed to purchase the homes from him, Ford gave them money from the sales proceeds that they could use as a down payment. This arrangement was intended to deceive lenders into believing the investors had sufficient assets to make a down payment. The arrangement, however, was not disclosed on the HUD-1 forms or loan applications.

After selling the homes to investors, Ford often failed to find renters and did not pay the mortgages as promised. Consequently, the mortgages went unpaid and homes went into foreclosure. Ford sold more than 80 properties to investors during the course of the scheme.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency – Office of Inspector General and the FBI investigated.