Grady Sr. to spend 14 years in prison

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) - The man convicted of various fraud charges and lying to the FBI about mortgage loans for home buyers in West Michigan was sentenced to prison on Friday.

Kevin Grady Sr. was sentenced in federal court to 14 years in prison and must pay about $3 million in restitution.

Grady is the highest profile of the five people charged in the con.

At one time, Grady managed a Grand Rapids mortgage brokerage office . He fixed prices with people who wanted to sell and, with the help of Lisa Walters, got inflated and false appraisals. Then, he got buyers who weren't financially qualified to buy the homes at the inflated prices.

But in return for their agreement to buy the house, Grady and his co-conspirators promised cash kickbacks to the buyers, often as much as $10,000 per house.

Those payments were made after the sale went through and were not known by the lenders.

Grady then turned in loan applications for the buyers that contained false information about the buyers actual financial status -- including inflated salaries, fictitious jobs, false sources of down payment money and exaggerated net worths.

After the loan was approved and the sale done, Grady and his co-conspirators shared in the false loan proceeds, and Grady took the biggest share.

His co-conspirators were also sentenced. Carlus Bridgeforth, of Grand Rapids, will spend 1 year in prison and must pay $366 thousand in restitution. Jimmy Collins, of Wayland, will spend 12 months plus one day behind bars paying $279 thousand in restitution. Lisa Walters was sentenced to 15 months behind bars and must pay $599 thousand in restitution.  Edward Sumrell was sentenced to 3 years' probation for making a false statement to the FBI.