A former Washington real estate broker has been sentenced to 10 years in federal prison for a multimillion-dollar investment fraud scheme.
Jimmy D. Lane, 53, 1144 E. Cruger Road, was ordered this week to serve the statutory maximum sentence, 120 months, for money laundering, to be served concurrently with a 121-month sentence for mail fraud related to the investment fraud scheme. He was also ordered to pay $2.3 million to his more than 40 victims.
Lane pled guilty in February to the scheme, which began in 1998. During court proceedings and in court documents, Lane admitted that during the past 10 years, he solicited investments through various entities, including Lane Investment Group, for real estate developments in central and southern Illinois and western Missouri.
Investor funds were to be used to develop the infrastructure for subdivisions, thereby increasing the value of the real estate. But Lane admitted he solicited funds before he acquired property for the subdivision in Washington that was to be known as Pine Ridge Estates.
Investors were given a certificate with a lot number so if the subdivision was not built, they would still have a parcel of land. Unbeknownst to investors, there was an 80 percent mortgage on the property, which was later foreclosed, according to U.S. Attorney Rodger A. Heaton.
U.S. District Judge Michael Mihm ordered Lane to report to Bureau of Prison officials on Sept. 1 to begin his sentence. When released, Lane will spend five years on supervised release.
Read more about this story in Wednesday's Washington Times-Reporter.
