White Collar Roundup - July 2016

Forfeiture Can Be Big, but Not THAT Big 

United States v. Beecroft vacated a $107 million forfeiture order as "grossly disproportional." In the case, defendant Melissa Beecroft was convicted of participating in a multimillion-dollar residential mortgage-fraud scheme in the Las Vegas area. The scheme involved the use of straw buyers who would purportedly buy homes, sometimes with 100% mortgage financing, and distribute the funds to the defendant and others. All told, the scheme involved more than 400 straw transactions for 227 properties that were purchased for more than $100 million. Most of the homes went into default, and the lenders lost tens of millions of dollars. Beecroft was intimately involved and made more than $400,000 from commissions and fees generated by the scheme. At sentencing, the district court ordered Beecroft to pay approximately $2 million in restitution to the victims. It also ordered her to forfeit approximately $107 million, which represented