Tammy Dickinson, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced today that a Nixa, Mo., man who was a co-owner of Greenleaf Companies has pleaded guilty in federal court to aiding and abetting a bank fraud conspiracy that was part of a multi-million-dollar mortgage investment scheme.
Eric Gagnepain, 41, of Nixa, waived his right to a grand jury and pleaded guilty before U.S. Magistrate Judge David P. Rush on Thursday, Jan. 9, 2014, to a federal information that charges him with aiding and abetting a conspiracy to commit bank fraud.
Gagnepain co-owned and operated Greenleaf Companies and all of its subsidiaries, along with Scot Dasal, 47, of Republic, Mo., from 2006 through May 2008. During this time, Greenleaf sponsored real estate investment seminars that were designed to recruit potential investors to apply for mortgage loans for the construction and sale of residential homes in southwest Missouri and northwest Arkansas.
By pleading guilty today, Gagnepain admitted that he aided and abetted others in the creation and submission of fraudulent mortgage loan documents. These mortgage loan documents contained material false statements regarding the true source of monies provided at the time of closing, as well as fraudulently omitting the payment of monies obtained from the sale of the real estate properties.
Dasal was sentenced on Nov. 21, 2013, to three years in federal prison without parole and ordered to pay $2,911,209 in restitution. Dasal pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting a bank fraud.
According to the plea agreement, Gagnepain derived more than $1 million in gross receipts from his criminal conduct. The total loss amount resulting from the bank fraud conspiracy is between $2.5 million and $7 million.
The plea agreement cites a specific instance of such fraud that occurred on March 12, 2008. Gagnepain and others created false mortgage loan documents that were submitted to Flagstar Bank. The loan documents fraudulently stated that the borrower had provided their own monies at the time of the closing; in reality, however, Greenleaf provided monies that were falsely identified as “cash from borrower.” Additionally, the loan documents omitted the fact that Greenleaf would receive monies from the sale of the real estate property from the seller. If Flagstar Bank had known the true source of the monies provided on behalf of the borrower, or that Greenleaf was receiving monies from the sale of this real estate property, the bank would have denied the mortgage loan application.
Under the terms of the plea agreement, Gagnepain will be sentenced to four years in federal prison without parole and must pay restitution in the amount ordered by the court. A sentencing hearing will be scheduled after the completion of a presentence investigation by the United States Probation Office. Gagnepain must also plead guilty to state charges (State of Missouri vs. Eric Christian Gagnepain). The sentence in the state case will be served concurrently with the federal sentence.
This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrick Carney. It was investigated by the FBI and IRS-Criminal Investigation.
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