Man pleads guilty over failed mortgage business

In the following press release Martin C. Carlson, Acting United States Attorney for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, announced today that his Office has charged the Berks County man at the center of a multi-million-dollar, failed mortgage business with Mail Fraud and that he has agreed to plead guilty to the charge.

WESLEY A. SNYDER, age 71, of Oley, Pennsylvania, is charged in a one count Information filed in U.S. District Court Harrisburg today with Mail Fraud Affecting a Financial Institution, 18 U.S.C. § 1341. The Information alleges that between 1988 and September of 2007 SNYDER defrauded more than 800 individuals throughout Central and Eastern Pennsylvania via his “Wrap Around, Equity Slide Down Discount” Mortgage Program and his “Mortgage Participation” Investment Program. The charge carries a potential penalty of 30 years imprisonment and $1,000,000 fine.

SNYDER has agreed to plead guilty to the charge pursuant to a written plea agreement filed with the Court. The agreement requires SNYDER to cooperate with the government and to make restitution to his victims as ordered by the Court. The agreement stipulates the loss in the case is somewhere between $15 million and $32 million dollars, the exact amount to be determined by the Court prior to sentencing. Under the terms of the plea agreement the government has reserved its right to recommend any sentence, up to and including the statutory maximum. No date has yet been set by the Court for SNYDER’s entry of his guilty plea.

The plea agreement SNYDER signed is expressly contingent upon SNYDER making full and complete disclosure of his assets to the government. The agreement acknowledges that SNYDER provided the government a comprehensive Financial Statement on October 24, 2007, which detailed all of the assets he owned and controlled. The agreement requires SNYDER to “freeze” his assets and not transfer, dispose, sell, cash, assign, or otherwise encumber any asset, including but not limited to any bank account, insurance policy, or interest in real estate, without the express knowledge and written consent of the U.S. Attorney’s Office. The agreement also requires SNYDER to submit to interviews regarding his financial status and, if necessary, to undergo a polygraph examination to ensure his compliance. The agreement provides that any violation of the agreement by SNYDER would subject him to sanctions and the possibility the government would ask the Court to be relieved of its obligations under the plea agreement. SNYDER filed for bankruptcy approximately 7 weeks ago on September 18, 2007, on behalf of six Reading-based business entities he owned and operated, primarily under the names of Personal Financial Management and Image Masters, Inc. Four days earlier SNYDER had notified more than 800 customers in Lancaster, Lebanon, Dauphin, Cumberland, York, Berks, and Schuylkill Counties that he could no longer make required mortgage payments on their behalf.

U.S. Postal Inspectors from Harrisburg executed a search warrant at SNYDER’s Oley, PA residence on October 12, 2007. The Information filed by the government today alleges that between 1988 and 2007 SNYDER took in more than $65.6 million from 811 Wrap Around mortgage customers but only forwarded approximately $39.1 million of that amount to their lenders. The Information also alleges that SNYDER defrauded 31 individual Mortgage Participation investors out of an additional $3,000,000.

Carlson praised the work of the Postal Inspectors in Harrisburg on the case, noting that they quickly and efficiently investigated an extremely complex and sophisticated white collar fraud. Carlson also commended the assistance the Inspectors and his Office received from the PA Department of Banking, the PA Attorney General’s Office, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Kim Douglas Daniel.

Resources:
Criminal Information
Plea Agreement
Press release