An Overland Park real estate appraiser whom federal prosecutors thought played a role in a larger $14 million mortgage fraud scheme pleaded guilty Monday to one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering.
Lydell Flowers, 32, entered a guilty plea in the federal district of Kansas, admitting to charges that he helped prepare inflated appraisals of Kansas City properties from which co-conspirators could skim the excess funds.
Eric Melgren, U.S. attorney for the federal district of Kansas, said in a written statement that Flowers' activities between 2002 and 2004 were tied to the loss of $2.5 million from lenders who paid out loans from the bogus appraisals.
Flowers' case is related to a federal indictment handed down Nov. 8 in Kansas in which prosecutors believe a scheme to lure risky borrowers into applying for real estate loans under false pretenses to lending companies netted the Kansas City-area conspirators $14 million.
Since the Nov. 8 indictment, two defendants pleaded guilty to their roles in the purported scheme; four more remain under federal charges.
For Flowers' part in the alleged scheme, he faces as much as 20 years in federal prison and as much as $500,000 in fines when he gets sentenced on June 9
http://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/stories/2008/03/10/daily7.html
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