Mortgage broker guilty in LV scam

Tuesday, Sept. 18, 2001 | 10:19 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- District Judge Lee Gates has set Nov. 19 for sentencing of mortgage broker David Ferradino after he pleaded guilty to felony theft involving $5.7 million swindled from some 90 investors, most of them living in Las Vegas.

As part of the plea agreement, Ferradino, former operator of Interstate Mortgage, will be placed on probation and required to pay back $2.1 million to investors.

That would be in addition to $1.5 million in restitution Ferradino has already made and another $2.1 million that is being repaid, Deputy Attorney General Matthew Dushoff said.

Ferradino was originally charged with three counts of theft, embezzlement and fraud and pleaded guilty Monday in District Court in Las Vegas to the one count, Dushoff said. He has surrendered his mortgage broker's license and can no longer be involved in the mortgage broker business in Nevada.

Prosecutors alleged investors gave Ferradino money to put into the Champion Homes-Iron Mountain Ranch projects, which were planning housing developments in the Las Vegas area. Ferradino used the land as collateral to secure the investments, then gave money to Champion Homes Corp. without permission or knowledge of the investors, prosecutors said.

Ferradino also never told the investors he was a 50 percent owner of Champion Homes, which later paid Ferradino $1.5 million for his interest in the corporation, prosecutors said.