MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – Two mortgage loan officers were each sentenced Monday on one count of conspiracy to commit mortgage fraud through the use of interstate wires.

Thirty-nine-year-old Chad Arthur Anderson and 43-year-old Troy Allen Huston, both from Chisago City, were sentenced to federal prison on Monday to terms of 60 and 57 months, respectively. They were also ordered to pay more than $4.8 million in restitution.

Anderson and Huston recruited relatives and friends to act as straw buyers, and had them purchase properties at inflated prices. They would then distribute the extra loan money among themselves, straw buyers, and others involved.

Both men admitted in their plea agreement that they recruited the straw buyers between 2006 and 2007 when they worked at Prestige Mortgage in White Bear Lake. At Prestige, Anderson and Huston brokered several fraudulent mortgage loans via submission of false loan applications to lenders.

Their scheme involved 32 homes in Minnesota, located in Albertville, Becker, Brooklyn Park, Buffalo, Cambridge, Chisago City, Elk River, Isanti, Minneapolis, Oak Grove, Otsego, St. Francis, St. Paul and Zimmerman.

The duo were also involved with Lofton Property, and Huston was involved with YES Financial – both in Chisago City – during the time frame of the scheme.

This case was the result of an FBI investigation, and was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney David J. MacLaughlin.