Former Gary reserve officer sentenced for home scheme
By Teresa Auch Schultz tauch@post-trib.com January 23, 2013 4:12PM
Updated: February 25, 2013 12:47PM
A former Gary reserve police officer will spend 30 months in prison, a federal judge announced Tuesday.
U.S. District Judge Rudy Lozano also ordered Phllip Rucker to help pay $73,489 in restitution to several banks defrauded by him and his co-defendants, including Gary businessman Jerry Haymon, as part of their mortgage fraud scheme.
A federal jury in Hammond found Rucker guilty in December 2011 of helping recruit buyers for the scheme, which involved selling houses in Gary for tens of thousands of dollars more than they were actually worth. Haymon would file liens on the house for renovation work that was never done to collect the difference between the selling price and what the house was actually worth.
The defendants hid the scheme from banks by submitting fake financial information to make it appear the buyers could afford the house.
