Published: November 21, 2008 02:28 pm      

Former mortgage broker facing additional charges

NEW CASTLE — Former mortgage broker Jason Keigley of Indianapolis, is facing six new felony counts involving violations of Indiana’s Loan Broker Act.

Keigley, 35, was arrested last week at the Branchville Correctional Facility after continued investigation into his mortgage practices.

Documents filed with the court allege that Keigley was not registered as a loan broker as required by law when he closed a mortgage for a Henry County couple and was using other company names. He also took steps to obtain mortgages for two other couples in Henry County. However, before he could close the mortgages, he was arrested and incarcerated in Hendricks County on unrelated mortgage and securities fraud charges.

Specific charges in Henry County against Keigley include three counts of loan broker fraud and three counts of acting as a loan broker while not being licensed, which are class D felonies.  

Keigley was found guilty in a jury trial and already faces more than 11 years in prison for felony fraud convictions, specifically from mortgage fraud in Hendricks County. He is currently scheduled to be released in April of 2012. If convicted on the new charges, he could spend up to three years in prison for each felony.

In March, Hendricks Superior Court III Judge Karen Love sentenced Keigley to more than 11 years in prison. A jury had found him guilty of making loan transactions as an unlicensed loan broker at both Prestige Mortgage Corporation and First Place Mortgage Inc.

Keigley was also found guilty of the sale of an unregistered security, transacting business as an unregistered broker/dealer, and fraud, all class C felonies, and loan broker fraud, a class D felony.

“We are very happy with the sentence and so were the families involved,” said Hendricks County Prosecutor Patricia Baldwin. “I am not shocked that other counties are charging him. I expected it because at the time I knew other investigations were going on in other jurisdictions.”

Baldwin added that she believes authorities from two additional counties are also looking into Keigley’s practices.

Keigley’s convictions here stem from an incident where he convinced a Hendricks County couple to invest into what he called a reverse mortgage. Keigley told the couple that their funds would be available to them at any time. However, when the couple later requested their funds be returned, he gave them only a small fraction of what they had invested.

“The family came close to losing everything,” Baldwin said.

Baldwin said the couple never recovered the remainder of their money but were able to recover some after working with the original lenders. She said she doesn’t know how much money they lost.

Indiana Secretary of State Todd Rokita said, “Hoosiers deserve to be protected from those who prey on their financial security. Individuals like Jason Keigley deserve to be held accountable for each and every one of their devious attempts to steal money from innocent victims. Our office has a track record of partnering with prosecutors across the State of Indiana ... to aggressively root out financial crime and keep Indiana citizens safe.”

andrea.hirsch@flyergroup.com