The lawyer caused approximately $1.1 million in losses to the agency
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A closing attorney has been sentenced to 37 months in prison for devising a scheme to commit wire fraud affecting a financial institution, the US Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Alabama announced.
Christopher Pitts, a Georgia resident who was previously a practicing attorney in Montgomery, Ala., was sentenced by US District Judge L. Scott Coogler after he pleaded guilty to defrauding the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Pitts was a closing attorney who served on the sales of all HUD-owned homes in northern and central Alabama between 2005 and 2008. In that role, Pitts was responsible for receiving the purchase money, paying closing costs, and transmitting the remaining purchase money to HUD.
In pleading guilty to the charge, Pitts admitted that he did not actually remit payments to HUD on numerous occasions. As a result, HUD never received the money it was owed for the sale of HUD-owned houses.
Coogler found that Pitts caused a total loss to HUD of about $1.1 million. He ordered Pitts to make full restitution to the agency upon his release from prison.
