Broker gets 9 years for mortgage theft

The broker pleaded guilty in late January.
COLUMBUS (AP) -- A mortgage broker was sentenced to nine years in prison for stealing nearly $7 million from families refinancing their homes and spending it on lavish parties, trips and a swimming pool for his home.
"He threw himself a seven-year party on other people's money," one victim, Keith O'Donnell, said during the sentencing of Michael A. Davis on Thursday in Franklin County Common Pleas Court.
Guilty plea
Davis, 42, of suburban Westerville, pleaded guilty on Jan. 31 to charges of theft, engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity and using others to deceive clients.
Prosecutors say that from 1997 to 2003, Davis' company, Ameribanc, did not pay off the mortgages of 44 home buyers who went to the company for refinancing. Some clients got stuck with two mortgages and had to hire lawyers or file for bankruptcy to save their homes from foreclosure.
Davis told his former clients that he had no right to ask for their forgiveness.
"The simple fact of the matter is ... I did it," he said.
Judge John Bessey also ordered Davis to repay Mortgage Network $6 million and his former clients $700,000 for their losses.
Mortgage Network, the new lender in 41 of the cases, paid off the old mortgages for its clients. The company realized that the homeowners were not to blame, said Michael Close, an attorney for the company.