Politics & Government

Burlington Real Estate Consultant Sentenced to 20 Months For Fraud

William Barksdale helped five people defraud banks out of over $1,000.

A real estate consultant from Burlington was sentenced to 20 months in prison for helping five people defraud banks by obtaining multiple home equity loans on the same property, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced on Friday.

William Barksdale, 47, previously pleaded guilty to an information charging him with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

In addition to the 20 months in prison, Barksdale was sentenced to five years supervised release.

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Barksdale, the owner of Barksdale Business Group, Barksdale Investment Properties, and Barksdale Loan Consultants, admitted to devising a scheme to obtain multiple home equity lines of credit on a single home for more than the property was worth, according to documents filed in the case and statements made in court.

A homeowner would submit loan applications to multiple lenders at once without informing them of any of the other applications, meaning that when each one conducted a title search, the report would come back clean because no home equity lines of credit had been reported.

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Barksdale advised five people to submit multiple applications. Each one obtained at least three loans, and one obtained seven home equity loans on one home.

Many of the loans defaulted, and the scheme caused more than $1,000 in losses. Each person paid Barskdale a portion of their fraudulent proceeds.

A restitution hearing will be held at a later date.


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