03:48
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WASHINGTON (Reuters)-U.S. prosecutors have urged a court to send the former President of bankrupt Taylor, Bean & Whitaker Mortgage Corp. in prison for the rest of his life for masterminding the fraud of 2.9 billion that took the company.
Lee Farkas, 58, was sentenced in April to 14 allegations of conspiracy, bank fraud, wire and securities under the scheme, in which he used some of the proceeds to live a lavish lifestyle with a jet and a collection of vintage cars.
Prosecutors said in a court filing Thursday that the Mayor Massimo was 385 years and urged district judge Leonie Brinkema to sentence him to at least 50 years to ensure that Farkas spends the rest of his life in prison.
"The nature, duration and scope of criminal activities by Farkas guarantees maximum punishment for maximum deterrence," they said. Sentencing is scheduled for Thursday.
The fraud began in 2002 and ran until Taylor, Bean filed for bankruptcy in August 2009. The collapse of the mortgage company was a major factor that has contributed to the collapse of one of the largest U.S. regional banks, Colonial Bank.
Farkas was accused of running a regime of large led to cover large losses to Taylor, Bean moving funds between bank accounts and even selling mortgages that did not exist, were useless or had already been sold.
He also attempted to obtain a loan from 553 million dollars Bank Bailout program Federal Colonial Bank of Colonial BancGroup Inc., but money was never disbursed. The Bank was closed by regulators and most of its assets were sold to BB & T Corp.
Prosecutors have also asked Farkas be required to lose more than 42 million dollars.
Defense team of Farkas urged the judge to sentence former Executive mortgage to 15 years in prison, noting that it was almost double that of the longest sentence already handed out in the case and to ignore any good, since he is essentially broken.
"The Government has constantly gone out of his way to paint Mr. Farkas as a greedy and manipulative man out for little more than personal gain," his lawyers said in its filing.
"Even a cursory review of large numbers of letters presented to this Court show that Mr. Farkas is anything but the monster afflicted by greed that the Government tries to paint him as," they said.
Lawyers argued 15 years would serve as a sufficient deterrent. Farkas has lost nearly all its assets, is subject to forfeiture of any remaining properties and faces a potentially large order of restitution, not so well should be imposed, they said.
Several other employees Taylor, bean and Colonial Bank who pleaded guilty for their role in the fraud were sentenced earlier this month. The longest sentence handed down so far was eight years of Catherine Kissick, that was the point of contact at colonial Bank of Farkas.
The case is U.S. v. Farkas, no. 10-cr-200, in u.s. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.
(Report by Jeremy Pelofsky, Matthew Lewis and editing by Gerald e. McCormick)
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