Two Triangle residents admit to mortgage fraud

Two Triangle residents pleaded guilty today to conspiracy to commit wire fraud as part of Operation Malicious Mortgage, a nationwide round-up by the federal government of more than 400 people accused of mortgage fraud.

Kelley Ann Spaulding of Durham and Elizabeth Whitaker Clement of Raleigh pleaded guilty in a federal courtroom in Raleigh.

According to an indictment, they had agreed to defraud E-Loan, a Web-based financial services company in California that offers mortgages and loans.

Spaulding, 38, and Clement, 46, lied about their employment history and income on documents they submitted to E-Loan, according to a press release from the U.S. Department of Justice.

Spaulding and a Raleigh man, William Montelle Loyd, III, submitted a pay stub with a false year-to-date income of $185,225, according to the indictment. They also were accused of submitting a signed loan application with a false monthly salary of more than $20,000.

Clement and Loyd also faxed a pay stub to E-Loan with false yearly income information and signed a loan application that contained false income information, according to the indictment.

Loyd, 56, was arrested earlier this month and has been charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

Spaulding and Clement face up to five years in prison. Court records do not indicate when they will be sentenced. Loyd, who is also charged with aggravated identity theft and mail fraud, faces up to 20 years in prison.

David W. Venable, Clement’s attorney and John Keating Wiles, Spaulding's attorney, would not comment on the case. According to both attorneys, U.S. District Court Judge James C. Dever III, the presiding judge, said that their clients would be sentenced in September. Bridgett Britt Aguirre, the attorney for Loyd, was out of the office Monday an assistant said.

According the FBI's Web site, the mortgage investigation focused primarily on three types of mortgage fraud — lending fraud, foreclosure rescue schemes and mortgage-related bankruptcy schemes. The fraud has resulted in more than $1 billion in losses, the FBI said on its site.

The investigation discovered more than 140 cases of fraud since March, the FBI said on its site.