Kevin Grady Sr guilty of wire fraud

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) - Kevin Grady Sr. was convicted on various wire fraud charges and lying to the FBI about mortgage loans for home buyers in 2005 and 2006.

Grady, 47, at one time 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-defendant Edward Sumrell, 56, was found guilty of making a false statement to the FBI in the investigation, but acquitted of two counts of perjury to a grand jury. He faces up to five years in prison.

His co-conspirators -- Walters, 42, of Wayland; Jimmy Collins, 40, of Grand Rapids; Carlus Bridgeforth, 39, of Grand Rapids; Alina Belmont, 35, of Alpharetta, Georgia; and Kristen Sarnicola, 38, of Kentwood -- entered please to various charges of wire fraud and bank fraud and are awaiting sentence.

Grady -- the father of former East Grand Rapids and U-M football players Kevin Grady and Kelvin Grady -- faces up to 30 years in prison for the bank fraud; 20 years in prison for each count of wire fraud; and five years for each count of making a false statement. He also agreed to a personal criminal forfeiture money judgement of $1,241,000.