The government had asked for a prison sentence of 385 years for Lee Farkas, former chairman of Taylor, Bean & Whitaker Mortgage Corp., who was recently convicted in a $3 billion mortgage fraud scheme that also caused the collapse of Colonial Bank - the sixth largest bank failure in U.S. history according the FDIC lawyer Tom O'Brian (pictured below).
Reading from a prepared statement Farkas told the judge, "I believe that everyone at Taylor, Bean & Whitaker and Colonial were acting together and in good faith," He said he had to "take risks" and the company "grew too fast"...."I thought perhaps naively that the ship could right itself." Never once did he mention the fraud scheme.
Saying "I do not detect one bit of actual remorse that what you did was unlawful, that you engaged in fraud, " Judge Brinkema imposed a 30 year sentence and a $38.5 million forfeiture on the 58 year-old Farkas.
NYT story here.
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