A disbarred Edgartown attorney has been indicted on federal tax and bank fraud violations. John C. McBride, 64, has been charged with allegedly recording or attempting to record false tax lien releases on properties including his Edgartown home.
Mr. McBride, who lives in Edgartown and Braintree, was indicted June 26 on one charge of endeavoring to obstruct and impede the due administration of the Internal Revenue laws and one charge of bank fraud.
He was arrested and arraigned at U.S. District Court in Boston on July 1, according to court documents. The court did not seek detention and a $25,000 unsecured appearance bond was entered.
Mr. McBride has already faced several charges in Edgartown district court. In May, he admitted to sufficient facts on several charges, including identity fraud, credit card fraud and a removed attorney practicing law.
He was licensed to practice law in Massachusetts from 1974 to June 2007.
According to the nine-page indictment, which was unsealed Monday, the Internal Revenue Service placed federal tax liens on Mr. McBride’s residences in Marblehead to secure tax assessments of more than $650,000, and placed federal tax liens on his Edgartown home on South Summer street for more than $700,000.
On the first charge, the indictment alleges that in 2008, Mr. McBride applied and obtained a $288,000 loan secured by his Marblehead property. To do so, he was required to receive certificates of release of the federal tax liens. “Rather than paying the federal taxes he owed” and obtaining the certificates, the indictment said, he “caused six false, forged and fraudulent Certificates of Tax Lien Release to be recorded against that property, knowing that they were in fact false, forged and fraudulent, and not issued by the IRS.”
The indictment further alleges that Mr. McBride unsuccessfully attempted to record two fraudulent Certificates of Federal Tax Lien Releases against his Edgartown property.
In 2011, the indictment continues, Mr. McBride allegedly sought a $387,000 reverse mortgage loan on the Edgartown property from Bank of America. He allegedly provided false information concerning the liens on the property and the status of a bankruptcy proceeding, and allegedly caused to be recorded a fraudulent and unauthorized discharge of mortgage on the Edgartown property for an amount greater than $700,000. Bank of America allegedly discovered the false document before the loan closed and did not disperse the money.
According to the indictment, the maximum sentence for the tax offense is three years in prison and a $250,000 fine, and the maximum sentence for bank fraud is 30 years in prison and a $1 million fine.
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