PRESS RELEASE


5 Admit Role in Mortgage Fraud

Strawbuyers Recruited and Downpayments Misrepresented for Loans

Jackson, Miss. -- (Oct. 19) -- DUNN LAMPTON, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Mississippi; JOHN G. RAUCCI, Special Agent in Charge of the Jackson Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation; and MICHAEL J. NELSON, Special Agent In Charge of the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation, New Orleans Field Office, announced that PHILLIP WEARY, WILLIAM V. FAIRLEY, a/k/a Vaston, JAFUS JONES, KENNETH FAIRLEY, JR., and KRISTY PACKER pleaded guilty today for their parts in a mortgage fraud conspiracy involving properties in Hattiesburg and Laurel.

As part of their pleas, all four defendants admitted to conspiring with RICHARD LUCAS, who was charged separately, along with nine others, in a conspiracy to commit wire and bank fraud. During their pleas today, the defendants admitted various aspects of their involvement in the scheme. Defendant PHILLIP WEARY operated as the seller on numerous pieces of real property in the Laurel and Hattiesburg area for defendant LUCAS and others, which were then resold to straw buyers and others at inflated values. Defendant WILLIAM V. FAIRLEY recruited individuals known as investors to purchase real property and homes in the Hattiesburg and Laurel area and also acted as a seller to straw buyers recruited by LUCAS.

Defendant JONES also recruited straw buyers for mortgage loans and was the designated seller of property to a straw buyer. Defendant KENNETH FAIRLEY, JR. received from defendant LUCAS $80,000 which was deposited into his University of Southern Mississippi credit union account in order to qualify for mortgage loans. Defendant KENNETH FAIRLEY, JR. thereby qualified for a number of loans representing that down payments were coming from him when in fact the moneys were coming from defendant LUCAS. Even though it was represented that the down payments came from the USM credit union account, none of the $80,000 was used for this purpose and, after this defendant had received the mortgage loans, the $80,000 was returned to defendant LUCAS.

Defendant PACKER worked for Lucas Development and its related company, C&J Properties, and appeared in advertising for C&J. Defendant PACKER acted as a straw buyer for mortgage loans and signed fraudulent loan applications. The applications, for example, included false bank information and other fraudulent information.

Assistant United States Attorneys GAINES CLEVELAND and GLENDA HAYNES are the prosecutors in charge of the case. Mr. LAMPTON praised the efforts of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation for their diligent work in the investigation of this case.

SOUCE: U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Mississippi