FBI hunt nabs two on fraud charges

Triangle residents lied to loan firm

Two Triangle residents pleaded guilty Monday to conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

According to a federal indictment, Kelley Ann Spaulding of Durham and Elizabeth Whitaker Clement of Raleigh 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 news 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, the release said. They also submitted a signed loan application with a false monthly salary of more than $20,000, it said.

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

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

Spaulding and Clement face up to five years in prison. Loyd, who also is 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.

Mortgage fraud focus

The charges were a result of Operation Malicious Mortgage, a nationwide roundup by the federal government of more than 400 people thought to be involved in mortgage fraud.

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. Such fraud has resulted in more than $1 billion in losses nationwide, the FBI said on its site.

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