Cleburne Brigham keeps doing mortgage deals.
So prosecutors in Oregon may keep him behind bars.
Brigham, 57, defied a judge’s order to cease brokering mortgages and has been arrested and jailed in Portland, according to court papers filed by the U.S. Attorney’s office there.
Brigham, who has been convicted three times on fraud charges, was arrested at his $1 million home in nearby Washington. A hearing on his case is set for Sept. 14 and a federal judge could decide to keep him in jail.
According to an Aug. 2 order signed by U.S. District Judge Ancer Haggerty Brigham was supposed to stop making deals while appealing a three-year prison sentence for fraud.
But just days after Haggerty signed the deal he was allegedly on the phone trying to close a real estate deal, according to transcripts of voice mail messages that are part of the court record.
“Despite the court’s warning Brigham wasted no time in returning to his life o crime and deceit,” prosecutors said in the court papers. “Informant testimony and documents found in a recent search of Brigham’s business paint a picture of extensive fraud, including forged loan documents, falsified loan applications, money laundering and open and notorious operation as a mortgage broker.”
In an Aug. 18 voice mail turned over by one of Brigham’s alleged targets he says, “I need to do a refi on this house and so I need to talk to you about that.”
According to another call, this one from Aug. 11, Brigham tells a client, “I guess there’s some, ah, lender documents that need to be signed.”
“Since his release pending appeal (Brigham) has flouted this court’s order by continuing to operate businesses that falsify loan applications, operate as an unlicensed mortgage broker in both Oregon and Washington…and ruined the financial lives of his victims,” prosecutors allege.”
Brigham has a long history of mortgage fraud convictions and problems with regulators, court records indicate.
Through the Couch Street Fish House, a business he owned, Brigham ran a fraud scheme in the late 1990s. In 2003 he pleaded guilty to making false loan statements and misusing Social Security numbers to get loans.
One of the Social Security numbers allegedly came from a 13-year-old girl.
Brigham was sentenced to 37 months in prison. It is that conviction he has been appealing.
In 1996 Brigham was convicted of selling securities without a license. A year later he was sentenced to two months in jail for violating a 1995 injunction that barred him from doing business as a mortgage broker in Oregon.
Earlier, in 1991 and 1992, Brigham was doing business as a mortgage broker without a license, according to court records.
But his problems go all the way back to 1988, when Oregon regulators “determined that Brigham was negotiating real estate loans in excess of the value of the property being purchased,” the records show.
In 1990 he was convicted in Washington of writing checks on a closed bank account. He did 30 days in jail and was put on probation for two years.
Brigham has displayed arrogance over the years, the court records show.
After he was sentenced to 60 days on his 1995 conviction Brigham left the courtroom boasting, “I’ll be out in three days.”
“Remarkably, he was,” prosecutors said. “A local jail official — who later was demoted after admitting a business partner of Brigham’s had encouraged his release — decided to release Brigham early.
“The state judge, however, was not to be so easily frustrated,” prosecutors said, “and had Brigham remanded (again) for the full 60 day term.”
