Top Vanguard execs arrested for allegedly embezzling $8.9 million

Three top executives at the New York-based lender funneled nearly $9 million into their own pockets, prosecutors say

Top Vanguard execs arrested for allegedly embezzling $8.9 million
Three top executives at a New York-based mortgage lender have been arrested for allegedly embezzling almost $9 million.

Edward E. Bohm, Edward J. Sypher Jr., and Matthew T. Voss, all senior executives at Vanguard Funding, were charged with conspiracy to commit wire and bank fraud.

Voss is Vanguard’s chief operating officer, while Sypher is the chief financial officer. Bohm serves as the company’s president of sales. Prosecutors say that the three executives obtained more than $8.9 million in warehouse loans for Vanguard to fund mortgages, then pocketed the funds to pay for their own personal expenses and compensation, as well as repaying earlier fraudulent loans.

“These defendants, for their own gain, allegedly defrauded the financial institutions that provide funding for individuals to buy homes, and they must be held accountable,” said New York Department of Financial Services Superintendent Maria T. Vullo. “As the regulator and protector of financial services companies in New York, the Department of Financial Services is proud to have assisted the Acting United States Attorney in bringing these defendants to justice.”

According to the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York, Voss, Sypher and Bohm ran the scheme between August of 2016 and March of 2017. They obtained short-term loans for Vanguard by falsely claiming they would use the money to fund mortgages or refinances for Vanguard customers. Once Vanguard received the money, however, the execs allegedly siphoned it off for themselves.

In a recorded conversation with a co-conspirator in 2017, Bohm said he felt they would not face criminal liability because they victimized banks instead of people.

“At the end of the day, the s**t we did wasn’t to the public,” he said.

Bohm may be wrong about that, however. If convicted, the three execs could each face up to 30 years in prison for bank fraud conspiracy and 20 years for wire fraud conspiracy.

Editor's note: Vanguard Funding is not affiliated with investment company The Vanguard Group.


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