Oklahoma City banker pleads guilty to millions in bank fraud

Last Updated on May 17, 2021, 9:25 PM | Published: May 17, 2021

OKLAHOMA CITY (Free Press) — Oklahoma City mortgage banker Ronald J. McCord, 70, has pleaded guilty in federal court to defrauding two local banks, Fannie Mae, and other banks through a wide-ranging set of schemes involving millions of dollars.

McCord was the Chairman and founder of First Mortgage Company, LLC (“FMC”), an Oklahoma City-based mortgage lending and loan servicing company. McCord’s LinkedIn profile lists him as a CMB or Certified Mortgage Banker.

McCord was held in high regard in some business circles even being named to the Oklahoma State Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors in 2014.

Guilty plea

The guilty plea on five counts came May 10 in the Western District of Oklahoma where a grand jury had returned a 24-count indictment against McCord June 3, 2020.

Sentencing is scheduled for August 9 where he could receive up to 30 years in prison and a fine of up to $1 million on each count of bank fraud and false statements to a financial institution according to the U.S. Attorney’s office.

However, the agreement in exchange for the guilty plea is that the government will ask for less prison time and restitution. The court may not agree with what the U.S. Attorney’s office is asking and hand down a tougher sentence.

According to the U.S Attorney’s office, the plea agreement was that “the government would not to advocate at sentencing for a sentence above 104 months. Under the plea agreement, McCord will be ordered to pay restitution to the victims of his conduct in amounts to be determined by the court at the time of sentencing. McCord must also forfeit proceeds of the fraudulent schemes and property involved in the offenses. Further, as part of the plea agreement, the government will dismiss at sentencing the remaining counts of the Indictment.”

In a prepared statement, the U.S. Attorney’s office said that McCord admitted to defrauding Spirit Bank (“Spirit”) and Citizens State Bank (“Citizens”)—two state-chartered financial institutions—as well as their respective residential mortgage subsidiaries, American Southwest Mortgage Corporation (“Mortgage Corp.”) and American Southwest Mortgage Funding Corporation (“Funding Corp.”).

The statement said that an independent audit discovered that McCord had sold more than $14,100,000.00 in Spirit/Mortgage Corp. and Citizens/Funding Corp. loans “out of trust” by failing to repay Spirit/Mortgage Corp. when certain Spirit/Mortgage Corp.-initiated loans were refinanced or otherwise paid off. At the time of this discovery, FMC carried outstanding balances of about $200,000,000.00 and $140,000,000.00 on the Spirit/Mortgage Corp. and Citizens/Funding Corp. lines of credit, respectively.

Update: This report has been updated from the original to clarify that McCord was a mortgage banker.