The fallout from the Pierce Commercial Bank mortgage fraud case continued in U.S. District Court in Tacoma this week.
On Monday, three Pierce County women who worked for bad-mortgage king Shawn Portmann were sentenced to prison for helping Portmann submit fraudulent loan applications.
Former Pierce Commercial vice president Sonja Lightfoot, 53, of Tacoma, was sentenced to one month in prison and four months of home detention.
Portmann’s former personal assistant, Alice Barney, 54, of Graham, got two months in prison and four months of electronic home detention.
Loan underwriter Jeanette Salsi, 55, of Bonney Lake, was sentenced to seven months in prison and four months of home detention.
Federal prosecutors said the three women, and others, helped Portmann push through risky or fraudulent loans from 2004 to 2008.
Court records show Portmann and his employees closed nearly $1 billion in loans in that time. More than 300 of the applications contained false information. Half of those went into default, resulting in $10 million in losses to Pierce Commercial Bank and other investors.
Many people lost their homes, and the bank collapsed, in part because of the mortgage crisis.
Portmann is a former senior vice president at Pierce Commercial Bank who, along with his associates, operated semi-autonomously as PC Bank Home Loans.
Portmann is to be sentenced Jan. 28.
Adam Lynn: 253-597-8644adam.lynn@thenewstribune.com
blog.thenewstribune.com/crime
@TNTadam
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