Albert William Roberts III, 68, of Lee’s Summit, Mo., is going to federal prison for four years without parole after being caught in a sprawling $3.7 million mortgage fraud scheme that spanned five years and poisoned the real estate market across three Missouri towns. The verdict, handed down today by U.S. District Judge Brian C. Wimes, marks the end of a long-fought case that exposed a web of lies, inflated property values, and secret kickbacks.
Roberts, a retired Kansas City school teacher, was found guilty on May 13, 2016, after a trial that laid bare his calculated deception. He secured a total of $3,758,420 in mortgage loans from lenders and title companies between 2002 and 2007 to buy 12 properties—three in Lee’s Summit, six in Peculiar, and three in Greenwood. Homes ranged from modest builds in the upper $100,000s to a $1.3 million estate on nearly two acres. But none of the transactions were clean.
The jury convicted Roberts on four counts of wire fraud tied directly to two of the transactions, but prosecutors proved the fraud bled into all 12 purchases. Roberts lied about his income, ownership stakes, and the nature of the deals. He structured each purchase to hide the truth, including funneling money through shell arrangements and omitting critical financial disclosures—all to keep lenders in the dark.
At the heart of the scam: $807,203 in undisclosed kickbacks from Penrod Homes, Inc., the developer selling him the properties. That money flowed back to Roberts off the books, padding his pockets while lenders took on massive, unjustified risk. When the housing market cracked, many of these loans defaulted, leaving financial wreckage in their wake—and taxpayers on the hook.
The court didn’t mince words, ordering Roberts to pay $1,992,221 in restitution. U.S. Attorney Tammy Dickinson, Western District of Missouri, emphasized that fraud on this scale undermines trust in the entire lending system. ‘This wasn’t a mistake,’ she said. ‘This was a deliberate, years-long scheme to steal from financial institutions.’
The case was prosecuted by Senior Litigation Consultant Gregg R. Coonrod and Assistant U.S. Attorney Kathleen Mahoney. The FBI led the investigation, peeling back layers of falsified documents and hidden payments to expose Roberts’ operation. With his prison term now set, the message is clear: even quiet, white-collar criminals will face the cell.
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Key Facts
- State: Missouri
- Agency: DOJ USAO
- Category: Fraud & Financial Crimes
- Source: Official Source ↗
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