Hyannisport Couple Sentenced for $3 Million Fraud Scheme

BOSTON — A former real estate attorney and his wife, both from Hyannisport, have been sentenced to prison time for a variety of mortgage fraud schemes that netted them more than $3 million.

The U.S. Attorney's Office said that on Aug. 25, 62-year-old Barry W. Plunkett, Jr. and his wife Nancy Plunkett, 57, were sentenced for five counts of bank fraud each and other charges after committing fraud through their law practice, the Plunkett Law Firm.

Barry was sentenced to serve six and a half years in prison and five years of supervised release.

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He was also ordered to pay more than $3.2 million in restitution and over $3.2 million in forfeiture as well.

Nancy will spend one year and one day in prison and five years of probation upon her release.

She has been ordered to pay more than $3 million in restitution jointly with Barry, and ordered to forfeit over $3.2 million.

The justice department said the pair both pleaded guilty to multiple fraud charges on March 4.

Barry admitted to five counts of bank fraud, one count of aggravated identity theft and one count of tax evasion, while Nancy pleaded guilty to five counts of bank fraud.

Before he was disbarred in October 2017, Barry owned and managed the Plunkett Law Firm, where Nancy also worked as his office assistant and paralegal.

The Plunketts committed several bank fraud schemes, including defrauding six mortgage lenders and 14 homeowners who used the law firm's services from 2012 to 2016 to close on loans for refinancing residential properties.

The defendants told the lenders that pre-existing mortgages were paid off when they actually weren't, taking more than $1 million in payoff funds for themselves.

Between April 2015 and March 2018, the Plunketts also used fraudulent names and fake documents to obtain three mortgage loans on their Hyannisport home.

The collateral for the loans — which amounted to $412,000, $470,000 and $1.2 million — was a property in Hyannisport held in a family trust for which Barry was one of three beneficiaries, according to the office.

False title reports and other fake records were given to lenders.

One lender was told that Nancy Plunkett was a single woman from Wellesley who was buying the property in her maiden name as a business investment.

However, the Plunketts have been married since 2014 and the property in question was their home.