A former lawyer wanted on fraud and money-laundering charges has been brought back from Brazil to face the music in an alleged $3 million scam, the U.S. Attorney for Middle Tennessee said.
George Nason, a former Nashville, Tenn., attorney, is one of 11 people named in a 2002 federal indictment in connection with the former Loan Ranger company, the office of Jim Vines, the U.S. Attorney, said.
Nason is charged with conspiracy to defraud mortgage loan companies and financial institutions, mail fraud, bank fraud, money laundering and false statements to financial institutions. He could be sentenced to as many as 30 years in prison and fined as much as $1 million.
According to prosecutors, Nason and his alleged henchmen bought properties, then sold them to straw buyers at inflated prices. The straw buyers allegedly borrowed from banks and mortgage lenders and then were allegedly paid $10,000 per sale for helping in the scam.
The 13 loans targeted in the federal indictment total more than $3 million in fraudulently obtained monies, the attorney’s office said.
The alleged fraudster fought extradition all the way to the Brazilian Supreme Court, which turned him down, according to the attorney’s office. Federal marshals brought him back to Nashville Sept. 10, the attorney’s office said.
Nashville attorney Linda Harris, Nashville businessman Leonard Primm, Samuel Thomas Drake and Geraldine Moloney, also named in the indictment, have already pled guilty, the attorney’s office said. The others named in the indictment are Dermot Maher, Roseminha Marquez, Roselynn Solomon, Tomisiano Solomon and Patrick Raymond O’Loughlin, the attorney’s office said.
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