Former NFL wide receiver and ex-Eagle Irving Fryer was sentenced Friday to five years in state prison for his involvement in a home mortgage scheme in New Jersey.
Fryar, 52, was convicted along with his mother in August for their role in a scam to apply for multiple mortgages in short succession while using the same property as collateral for each application. The pair conspired to steal more than $1.2 million by obtaining 5 home equity loans on the property of Allene McGhee, Fryar's 74-year-old mother, and one on Fryar's home, the Courier-Times reports.
Between December 18 and Decmeber 21, 2009, Fryar and his mother obtained five home equity loans on McGhee's Willingboro home, totaling more than $690,000. Four of them closed in a single day. A sixth home equity loan was taken out on Fryar's home on January 14, 2010, for $150,000. Each of the banks believed that it held the first lien on the home and that their loans would be secured by adequate equity.
Fryar and McGhee also conspired to submit false wage information on an application to help McGhee obtain a $414,000 conventional mortgage on October 20, 2009 for the Springfield home in which Fryar has lived under his mother's ownership.
Most of the banks involved -- Susquehanna Bank, The Bank, Sun Bank, Cornerstone Bank, Beneficial Bank, and Roma Bank -- wrote off the loans after Fryar and McGhee only made a handful of payments. Sun Bank was the only institution to be paid back in full.
“It’s regrettable that this former NFL star and church leader is going to prison, but the reality is that he stole more than $1 million,” said Acting Attorney General John J. Hoffman. “The fact that Fryar had the means to succeed and do good things and instead chose this criminal path makes his actions all the more reprehensible.”
Fryar, the number one overall pick in the 1984 NFL draft, played for the New England Patriots and Miami Dolphins before joining the Eagles for the 1996-1998 seasons.