Mortgage Executives Arrested for Warehouse Fraud

Matthew T. Voss, 42, was chief operating officer of Vanguard Funding LLC during the period from August 2016 through March 2017.

Also
on the senior management team of the Long Island lender during that time were chief financial officer Edward J. Sypher Jr., 40, and president of sales Edward E. Bohm, 39.

Voss was a majority owner of Vanguard, and Bohm was
a minority owner.

Vanguard utilized warehouse lines to fund new mortgage originations.

But, according to a criminal complaint unsealed and filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court for the
Eastern District of New York, the three executives were involved in a conspiracy to defraud their warehouse lenders.

The alleged wire fraud was committed in connection with more than $8.9 million in warehouse line draws from BankUnited Inc., Northpointe Bank and Santander Bank.

The government claims that
Voss, Sypher and Bohm use funds intended to finance newly originated mortgages for personal expenses, to pay personal compensation and to repay loans previously obtained with fraudulent loan submissions for improper purposes.

“As alleged, the defendants — executives of a mortgage lender — defrauded banks into lending them money by stating that the money would fund new mortgages or refinance existing ones,” Acting U.S. Attorney Bridget M. Rohde said in a written statement.

A recorded conversation in 2017 allegedly had Bohm expressing confidence that there would be no criminal liability because the victims were financial institutions.

“At the end of the day, the s— we did wasn’t to the public,” Bohm was quoted as saying.

Vanguard’s mortgage banking license was suspended last month by the New York State Department of Financial Institutions.

The three men were arrested and made their initial court appearances on Tuesday.
They face up to 30 years in prison for bank fraud conspiracy and up to 20 years for wire fraud conspiracy.