Edward Bohm, formerly the president of sales and part-owner of mortgage lender Vanguard Funding LLC, based in Garden City, N.Y. was sentenced to 24 months in prison for diverting more than $8.9 million of warehouse loans Vanguard fraudulently obtained to fund home mortgages and mortgage refinancing. Bohm also was ordered to pay $3,488,615.42 in restitution and $1.5 million in criminal forfeiture. In February 2019, Bohm pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit wire and bank fraud.
Between August 2015 and March 2017, Bohm and his co-conspirators at Vanguard engaged in a scheme in which they obtained more than $8.9 million in short-term loans, referred to as warehouse loans, by falsely representing that the loan proceeds would fund specific mortgages, or refinance specific mortgages, for Vanguard clients.
Instead, Bohm and his co-conspirators diverted the funds to pay personal expenses and compensation, and to pay off loans they had previously obtained through fraudulent loan applications. Bohm is the third defendant to be sentenced in connection with this scheme. On Feb. 6, 2019, Vanguard Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Edward J. Sypher, Jr., was sentenced to 18 months’ imprisonment and restitution in the amount of $3,488,615.42 following his conviction on conspiracy to commit wire and bank fraud charges. On Feb. 26, 2019, Vanguard Chief Operating Officer Matthew Voss was sentenced to 24 months’ imprisonment and $3,488,615.42 restitution following his conviction on conspiracy to commit wire and bank fraud charges.
The government’s case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Whitman Knapp, with assistance from Special Agent Martin Sullivan of the Office’s Business and Securities Fraud Section. Assistant U.S. Attorney Madeline O’Connor of the Office’s Asset Recovery Section is handling forfeiture matters.