Area Man Pleads Guilty to Loan Fraud Charges

St. Louis, Missouri: Daryl W. Miller pled guilty to wire fraud for selling two properties and then, after he no longer owned these properties, taking out a mortgage against one and selling the other for a second time, United States Attorney Catherine L. Hanaway announced today.

Between June 2006 and March 2007, Miller owned commercial and residential properties in the St. Louis and St. Charles areas. In July 2006, Miller deeded two properties, one in Maryland Heights and one in St. Charles, to the first purchaser. In August and December 2006,without disclosing that he had already sold these properties, Miller pledged one of the properties as collateral for a loan from NovaStar Mortgage, Inc., and sold the other for a second time to a purchaser who borrowed from Truman Bank to make the purchase. The titles for both of the properties were insured by Commonwealth Land Title Insurance Company. In order to get clear title to these two properties after these transactions came to light, Commonwealth Land Title paid $190,000 to put them back to the position of having clear title on these two properties.

DARYL W. MILLER, St. Charles, Missouri, pled guilty to one felony count of wire fraud. He now faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and/or fines up to $250,000, when he is sentenced on September 4, 2008.

Hanaway commended the work performed on the case by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Postal Inspection Service, and Assistant United States Attorney Jeffrey Jensen, who is handling the case for the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

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