NEWS RELEASE

OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES ATTORNEY
WESTERN DISTRICT OF MISSOURI

JOHN F. WOOD

Contact Don Ledford, Public Affairs ● (816) 426-4220 ● 400 East Ninth Street, Room 5510 ● Kansas City, MO 64106

www.usdoj.gov/usao/mow/index.html

MAY 14, 2007

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

LEE’S SUMMIT APPRAISER PLEADS GUILTY TO MORTGAGE FRAUD CONSPIRACY

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – John F. Wood, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that a Lee’s Summit, Mo., appraiser pleaded guilty in federal court today to his role in a conspiracy to commit mortgage fraud.

Jeremy A. Plagman, 29, of Lee’s Summit, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Howard F. Sachs this morning to the charge contained in a Jan. 4, 2007, federal indictment.

Plagman admitted that, from early September through Nov. 17, 2006, he participated in a conspiracy to defraud Fieldstone Mortgage Corporation. Plagman, an appraiser doing business as JET Appraisals in Lee’s Summit, provided an inflated appraisal of $1.2 million for property at 5034 Sunset Drive in Kansas City, Mo. That inflated appraisal was submitted to Fieldstone Mortgage by co-conspirators in order to obtain loans to fund its purchase. Plagman admitted that co-conspirators hoped to obtain loan proceeds in excess of the actual sale price by falsely representing to the mortgage lender that the stated sale price was greater than the actual sale price.

Under federal statutes, Plagman could be subject to a sentence of up to five years in federal prison without parole, plus a fine up to $250,000. A sentencing hearing will be scheduled after the completion of a presentence investigation by the United States Probation Office.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Linda Parker Marshall and Senior Litigation Counsel Gene Porter. It was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.