Micah John Beaumia, 30, of Alexandria Minnesota, has been sentenced to three yeas in prison for his role in a mortgage fraud scheme.  Beaumia had been convicted on one count of wire fraud and one count of money laundering last year.

Beaumia had previously admitted in a plea agreement that he had made more than $400,000 in cash payments in 2005 and 2006 from mortgage loan proceeds by way of illegal "cash at closing" agreements that had not been disclosed to lenders. 

Beaumia helped arrange these transaction through his role as a mortgage broker with LHS Mortgage, Inc. and another undisclosed mortgage company, with the assistance of a co-conspirator, Jill M. Lehn, 41, a closing agent who was a principal of First Advantage Title. Lehn, who cooperated with the FBI in unraveling the scheme, received a two-year prison sentence for her role in the scheme in 2008.  Several other participants involved with Lehn have been indicted and/or convicted of similar arrangements .

In a typical transaction, Beaumia would help prepare fraudulent loan application documents to be provided to potential lenders, documents which overstated the purchase price of the property.  Beaumia, via his closing agent Lehn, had the extra money above and beyond the true purchase price secretly diverted to himself and a relative by using fraudulent documentation. 

In some cases, Beaumia misrepresented his identity as the broker on the transactions in a further effort to conceal his crimes.

In all, 13 fraudulent mortgage transactions arranged by Beaumia and Lehn totaled more than $2.2 million in loan proceeds.

Beaumia’s illegal benefits from the scheme included an $18,000 check that on October 17, 2005, he endorsed over to an establishment called Lucky’s Garage as partial payment for a Wild West Dragon motorcycle.