Lee Farkas has received a 30-year prison sentence (less than a tenth of the 385 years requested by prosecutors) for his role in the Taylor Bean & Whitaker (TBW) mortgage fraud scheme [3]. “I do not detect one bit of actual remorse,” explained the judge as she sentenced Farkas, adding that she believed that any regret he experienced was for getting caught. The sentence is 20 years shy of the minimum 50 years federal prosecutors believed would insure that Farkas spent the remainder of his life behind bars. Farkas fraudulent manufacture of mortgages and securities ultimately led to the collapse of TBW, Ocala Funding and Colonial Bank, putting thousands of mortgage professionals out of work, creating billions of dollars in losses for both the federal government and investors and nearly resulting in theft from taxpayers directly when he attempted to qualify for TARP funds to continue to fund his lifestyle.
“The losses in this case are off the charts,” prosecutor Patrick Stokes explained. “[Farkas] has destroyed lives and institutions. He’s caused staggering economic loss to individuals and banks” [4]. The government hopes to seize $38 million in assets in addition to Farkas’ prison sentence, but this will not come close to the estimated losses his actions created.
Lee Farkas, former majority owner of Florida mortgage company Taylor, Bean & Whitaker (TBW), didn’t kill anyone, but he still is facing life in prison – 385 years to be exact – for a $3 billion mortgage fraud scheme that has been called “one of the biggest bank frauds in U.S. history.” When his company collapsed…
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