JACKSON — Two former Hinds County mortgage brokers will forfeit more than $3 million and pay more than $781,000 in restitution for their part in a mortgage fraud scheme.
Jason Ellis and Michael Persac will also be going behind bars.
U.S. District Judge Henry Wingate sentenced Persac, 40, to 30 months in prison Wednesday; he’ll have to pay nearly $574,413 restitution and forfeit more than $3 million seized by the government.
Ellis, a 37-year-old Leflore County native, got five months in prison followed by five months of house arrest and must pay $206,625 restitution and forfeit $18,353.
The pair had been out on bond since they were charged in 2005 in a mortgage fraud case.
The Clarion-Ledger reports Ellis and Persac were charged in a 47-count indictment alleging fraud and money laundering in obtaining 65 loans for borrowers totaling $3.3 million.
Ellis pleaded guilty in 2006 and Persac pleaded guilty in 2008 in plea agreements to some counts. The other counts were dismissed Wednesday.
They were the last two to be sentenced in the mortgage fraud case.
Last week, Wingate sentenced former Greenwood attorney Bobby Fisher, 50, to 27 months in prison and to pay $768,501 restitution. Joni Lynn Goss, 46, a former Greenwood resident who now lives in Ridgeland, received eight months of house arrest and five years of probation and was ordered to pay $155,768 in restitution.
John William Emory III, 58, a former Ridgeland mortgage loan originator, got 10 months of home confinement and five years of probation and was ordered to pay restitution of $98,536. Matt Howard Jr., 35, a Leflore County farmer and former mortgage broker, was sentenced to six months in federal prison and ordered to make restitution of $25,634.
