WASHINGTON — A federal grand jury has indicted the head of a company that was once among the largest privately held mortgage lenders, alleging that it schemed to steal more than half a billion dollars from the government’s Troubled Assets Relief Program.
The indictment in Virginia alleges that Lee Bentley Farkas and co-conspirators carried out the scheme at their company, Taylor, Bean & Whitaker Corp. of Ocala, Fla. Farkas was chief executive; he was arrested Tuesday.
The attempt to get TARP funds was just one part of a scheme that was “truly stunning in its scale and complexity” and that resulted in losses of more than $1.9 billion, the Justice Department’s Lanny Breuer told a news conference. Breuer is Justice’s assistant attorney general for the criminal division.
The co-conspirators even gave a name to their alleged plot: They called it Project Squirrel, said Neil MacBride, the U.S. attorney for the eastern district of Virginia.
Neil Barofsky, special inspector general for TARP, said the alleged plot was discovered before the theft could occur.
Besides conspiracy, Farkas is charged with bank fraud, wire fraud and securities fraud.
