| A Boston area attorney, who was disbarred in 2007 after practicing law for more than three decades, was sentenced to federal prison yesterday for tax and bank fraud violations.
John C. McBride was sentenced today to two years in prison, two years of supervised release and restitution to be determined at a later date for recording fraudulent tax and bank releases on homes in Marblehead and Edgartown. Both properties were later foreclosed on.
McBride recorded six fraudulent federal tax lien releases in early 2008 against his Marblehead home in order to obtain a $288,000 loan secured by that property and deprive the Internal Revenue Service of nearly $700,000 in secured interest. McBride prepared the releases himself, without the knowledge or authorization of the IRS, and forged the signatures of IRS officials on them. In March 2008, McBride attempted, unsuccessfully, to record two similar fraudulent tax lien releases against a second home he owned in Edgartown on Martha’s Vineyard.
In 2011, McBride attempted to obtain a $387,000 reverse mortgage loan from Bank of America, which was to have been secured by his Edgartown property. In connection with that loan application, McBride falsely told the bank that there were no liens on the Edgartown property and that he was not then in bankruptcy. In fact, there were substantial liens on the property and McBride’s bankruptcy case, which he had filed in 2009, was still ongoing. To obtain the bank loan, McBride prepared and recorded a fraudulent and unauthorized discharge of mortgage that purported to discharge a more than $700,000 existing mortgage on his Edgartown property. BofA discovered that the discharge was fraudulent before the loan closed, and no funds were disbursed to McBride.
McBride pleaded guilty in January to bank fraud and endeavoring to obstruct and impede the due administration of the Internal Revenue laws. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark J. Balthazard of United States Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz’s Economic Crimes Unit.
