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Prosecutor lays out Irving Fryar's alleged scam

When ex-Eagle Irving Fryar needed money in 2008 and 2009, a financial adviser now serving time in federal prison told him about a scheme they could use to defraud banks, New Jersey Deputy Attorney General John Nicodemo said in opening arguments at Fryar's trial in Mount Holly on Wednesday.

Irving Fryar is charged with conspiracy and theft. CLEM MURRAY / Staff Photographer
Irving Fryar is charged with conspiracy and theft. CLEM MURRAY / Staff PhotographerRead more

When ex-Eagle Irving Fryar needed money in 2008 and 2009, a financial adviser now serving time in federal prison told him about a scheme they could use to defraud banks, New Jersey Deputy Attorney General John Nicodemo said in opening arguments at Fryar's trial in Mount Holly on Wednesday.

By applying for multiple mortgage loans in quick succession, and using one property as collateral, the two men could obtain money that banks normally would not approve, Nicodemo told the jurors. "One bank will never know about the others, and you get a whole bunch of money using one property for all of the loans," he said.

Fryar, a Pro Bowl wide receiver five times during his 17-year NFL career, is standing trial with his mother, Allene McGhee, 74, on charges of conspiracy and theft by deception in connection with a $1.3 million scam involving six banks and one mortgage company in South Jersey and Philadelphia.

Their lawyers painted a different picture for the jury panel, which consists of 10 women and five men, including alternates. "Bill Barksdale is a consummate con artist" who preyed on numerous lending institutions and unsuspecting clients including Fryar and McGhee in New Jersey and Florida, said Mark Fury, a Mount Holly lawyer who represents McGhee, a retired school bus driver. Fury said that his client wanted to take out a home equity loan against her $200,000 Willingboro house and that Barksdale, the financial adviser, told her "sign here, sign here, and here" on several loan applications in December 2009, telling her the other applications she had filled out had been rejected.

Barksdale, who owned several financial service businesses in Levittown, Pa., pleaded guilty to a federal conspiracy charge last year and was sentenced to 20 months in prison. As part of his plea agreement, Barksdale was expected to testify at Fryar and McGhee's trial and later at a trial for two other Burlington County clients named as coconspirators.

After Fryar retired from football in 2001, he founded the New Jerusalem House of God church in Mount Holly and became its minister. Michael Gilberti, his lawyer, said Fryar was charged because of his football fame. "He was a local high school standout all-American who played for four different NFL teams. . . . The whole reason Barksdale gave the name of Irving Fryar is he was famous, a name someone, everyone, would recognize, and the prosecutors were very interested," Gilberti said.

Fryar, who lives in Springfield, Burlington County, showed no emotion during the remarks.

Gilberti said Fryar was buying old houses, rehabbing them, and flipping them to earn extra money. That's how Fryar met Barksdale, and the two men did "a bunch of legitimate house deals," and Barksdale helped him obtained loans to fix the houses, Gilberti said. Later, Barksdale sold a house in Willingboro to McGhee and Fryar for $200,000 when she wanted to downsize, and offered to hold the mortgage on it, about $130,000 worth.

Barksdale then asked McGhee to sign several mortgage loan applications so that he could finance the mortgage he was holding, Gilberti said.

Barksdale's "fingerprints are all over it. . . . He coached them to do the paperwork and get them through the process," Gilberti said. Barksdale received all the checks from the banks, Gilberti added.

Fury said Barksdale "got every dime" of the money that the banks provided. One $50,000 payment was deposited later into McGhee's account, which included Fryar as a signator, but there is no evidence Fryar knew it had come from fraudulent activity, Fury said. He also questioned whether it is "common sense" for someone to risk his or her reputation and freedom for such a small percentage of the total amount the banks lent.

After Fryar and McGhee were indicted, the state Attorney General's Office said Fryar obtained $200,000 of the bank loans after the banks were defrauded.

Nicodemo focused on the defendants' alleged conspiracy to obtain more than $850,000 from the six banks in December 2009 and $414,000 from a mortgage company two months earlier. He said McGhee appeared at a closing for one of the loans and signed all the applications. He said she fraudulently wrote on the applications that she was earning $72,000 to $84,000 yearly as an event coordinator at Fryar's church so she would qualify for the loans.

The trial, before Superior Court Judge Jeanne T. Covert, is expected to continue into August.