Ex-top Baltimore prosecutor convicted of falsifying mortgage application

By Steve Gorman

(Reuters) - Baltimore's former top prosecutor, Marilyn Mosby, was found guilty in federal court on Tuesday of making a false statement on a mortgage application for a Florida condominium purchase, adding to two perjury convictions three months ago.

The jury in Mosby's latest trial acquitted her of a second count of falsifying a mortgage application related to the purchase of another Florida home, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for Maryland.

Mosby, elected Maryland state's attorney for Baltimore in 2014, became the youngest top prosecutor of any major U.S. city and made headlines in 2015 by criminally charging police officers for the death of a Black detainee, Freddie Gray.

Mosby, 44, a Democrat, lost her bid for a third term after she was indicted on federal charges in January 2022.

Tuesday's split verdict comes three months after a separate jury found Mosby guilty of perjury on Nov. 9 for twice claiming falsely to have suffered a work-related financial hardship in order to request two early withdrawals from her city employee retirement account.

In both instances, that jury found, Mosby fraudulently invoked a federal CARES Act provision allowing for emergency retirement distributions in the event of furlough, layoff, quarantine or other COVID-19-related difficulties impacting one's own business.

The $90,000 she was convicted of drawing on fraudulently was used to make down payments on the two Florida vacation properties.

Prosecutors said Mosby was earning a gross annual salary of nearly $250,000 at the time as state's attorney for Baltimore.

In the related case decided on Tuesday, Mosby was accused of lying on the applications she submitted to secure loans on the two Florida properties at the center of the earlier trial - one in Long Boat Key, the other in Kissimmee.

Seeking to obtain a lower mortgage rate on the Long Boat Key property, Mosby falsely stated that she had received a $5,000 gift from her husband to be applied to the purchase, according to evidence presented at trial.

That evidence, however, showed that Mosby had transferred $5,000 to her spouse and then he transferred it back to her.

The jury found Mosby not guilty on a second count stemming from allegations that she had failed to disclose federal tax delinquencies in submitting the Kissimmee mortgage application.

Conviction on a single count of making a false mortgage application carries a maximum sentence of 30 years in federal prison, the U.S. Attorney's Office said in a statement. Mosby also faces up to five years in prison for each of the two perjury counts, according to the statement.

U.S. District Judge Lydia Griggsby in Greenbelt, Maryland, has yet to schedule a sentencing hearing for either of the two cases.

Mosby has said she was innocent of wrongdoing and the victim of a politically motivated prosecution by adversaries in the Maryland U.S. Attorney's Office who were out to spoil her re-election chances.

(Reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by Himani Sarkar)