Realtor’s conviction for fraud upheld
The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld the conviction and sentence of Sally L. Gibson, a Spokane Realtor who was a key player in a $1.4 million mortgage fraud scheme.
Without comment, the federal appeals court issued an order last week affirming Gibson’s 2004 conviction and the sentence handed down in March 2005 by U.S. District Court Judge Robert Whaley.
The judge sentenced her to 30 months in prison and ordered her to pay $264,406 in restitution. It is expected Gibson will be ordered to report to a federal prison in the next few weeks after the facility is designated by the U.S. Bureau of Prisons, authorities say.
Gibson, who’s now 63, has been free pending her appeal.
Dozens of home buyers lost an estimated $1.4 million in the fraud scheme that lasted from 1997 through 2000 in the Spokane area. Interested buyers were promised $100 if Century Mortgage couldn’t find and qualify them for a home purchase.
The scheme involved falsely appraising homes and selling them for far more than their actual value – defrauding mortgage lenders and leaving purchasers facing balloon payments, high interest rates, foreclosure and even bankruptcy.
After her conviction, Gibson was hired to work for more than a year as a “marketing representative” for the Spokane Better Business Bureau. Jan Quintrall, the organization’s executive director, confirmed she knew about Gibson’s conviction but believed it would be overturned.
The BBB’s board of directors ordered Gibson terminated last September after a published report detailed her involvement in the mortgage fraud conspiracy.
Gibson was convicted by a jury in August 2004 of conspiracy and 11 counts of wire fraud associated with a home-selling scheme carried out by Century Mortgage and its co-owners, Dale “Sage” Gibbons and Ronald Lee Burger.
Gibbons, Burger and two other defendants also received prison sentences and were ordered to pay various amounts of restitution.
Gibson sent her home-buying clients, many of them low-income or unemployed, to Century Mortgage for financing. She claimed she was just a “convenient scapegoat” and was following widely accepted practices within the real estate industry.