CHARLOTTE (AP) — Federal agents are accusing a disbarred North Carolina lawyer of defrauding banks and investors out of more than $82 million in improper loans tied to a mountain real estate development.
Randy Alan Carpenter of Spruce Pine was arrested today and charged with seven felony counts of conspiracy, bank fraud and making false statements on tax returns.
Prosecutors say the 54-year-old and others conspired to provide banks with false information to secure mortgages for a real estate development called the Village of Penland. Between 2001 and 2007, Carpenter’s legal clients closed more than 300 residential real estate loans secured by Penland lots valued at $108 million.
Reached at his home, Carpenter declined to comment.
If convicted, he faces up to 38 years in prison and $1.3 million in fines.