Ex-CFO at Taylor Bean gets 5 years in $3B fraud

By MATTHEW BARAKATAP Business Writer
ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) - The chief financial officer of what had been one of the nation's largest private mortgage companies has been sentenced to five years in prison for his role in a $3 billion fraud scheme.
Forty-one-year-old Delton de Armas of Carrollton, Texas, was CFO of Florida-based Taylor Bean and Whitaker until its 2009 collapse. He is the eighth person convicted in one of the biggest fraud schemes to emerge from the nation's housing crisis, including company founder Lee Farkas, who received 30 years.
The five-year term was less than the seven years sought by prosecutors.
Taylor Bean executives hid billions in debts with phony accounting and by double-selling mortgages it held to various banks.
Taylor Bean's collapse also helped bring down Alabama-based Colonial Bank, the sixth-largest bank failure in U.S. history.
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