The former chief operating officer and chief financial officer of a New York mortgage lender admitted in court this week that they conspired to misappropriate more than $8.9 million from warehouse lines of credit that were meant to fund mortgages.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York, Edward Sypher, Jr. and Matthew Voss, who are senior executives at Vanguard Funding, pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit wire and bank fraud in connection with the scheme.
Sypher and Voss were charged last year for their participation in the fraud. Edward Bohm, who was the president of sales, was also charged for his alleged participation in the scheme.
The complaint stated that between August 2016 and March 2017, Voss, Sypher and Bohm engaged in a scheme where they obtained warehouse lines of credit from various lenders, including Santander Bank, Bankunited, and Northpointe Bank, which were supposed to be used to fund mortgages for the Vanguard’s customers.
But instead of funding mortgages for Vanguard’s clients, Voss, Sypher and Bohm allegedly used the money from the warehouse lenders to pay personal expenses and compensation, and to pay off loans they had previously obtained with fraudulent loan submissions for improper purposes.
According to the criminal complaint, which was unsealed back in August, an agent from the Federal Bureau of Investigation stated that Bohm and Sypher were both recorded discussing their roles in the scheme.
In one recording, Bohm allegedly said that the trio wouldn’t face charges because their scheme’s targets were lenders, not the public. “At the end of the day, the s— we did wasn’t to the public,” Bohm allegedly said in the recording.
Sypher was also recorded during a meeting in the Vanguard offices last year. During that meeting, Sypher allegedly said that his role in the company meant that he would be not be charged if the scheme became public.
“I’m a W-2 employee. I don’t pull strings in this f—— thing,” Sypher allegedly said.
During that same meeting, Sypher allegedly told a co-conspirator: “You and I never had any communication on any of this s—. Ever. Ever. Okay? Outside of the normal course of business. None. So, we’re not going to f—— jail.”
But, after pleading guilty, Sypher and Voss each face up to 20 years in prison, along with restitution, criminal forfeiture and a fine.
