PROSECUTORS: Man Operated Identity-Theft Fraud Scheme While Out On Bond In Ponzi Scheme Case; Bryant R. Filter Sentenced To 135 Months In Federal Prison

While completing its investigation of Bryant R. Filter for operating an insurance Ponzi scheme, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service discovered Filter was operating a second fraud scheme, federal prosecutors said.

Filter, 39, of Mars, Pa., now has been sentenced to 135 months in federal prison for the Ponzi fraud, and a second scheme in which he stole the identities of customers to obtain fraudulent loans.

Through a company known as Filter and Associates, Filter fraudulently secured financing for insurance premiums by fabricating “an insurance relationship with a nonexistent representative of an insurance company, and a fictitious underwriter,” prosecutors said.

He obtained more than $8 million in the insurance scheme, which prosecutors dubbed a “Ponzi” type loan scheme.

Even as the Ponzi case was before the court and Filter was pleading guilty in April 2009, Filter was knee deep in a second scheme, prosecutors said.

“Unbeknownst to the Court and the government, Filter committed a second wave of fraud offenses, which resulted in his arrest on May 21, 2009,” prosecutors said.

In the second scheme, Filter used a company known as Three Rivers Business Group LLC to obtain “personal information from clients seeking to sell or purchase a business and seeking the financing to do so.

“Filter used the clients’ personal information without their permission to obtain financing proceeds in their names for himself,” prosecutors said.

As part of the second scheme — and while Filter was out on bond in the Ponzi scheme — Filter “attempted to defraud a bank when he applied to obtain a $50,000 home equity loan in the names of unsuspecting victims, without their authorization, using their house as security.”

A federal judge revoked Filter’s bond and jailed him when the second scheme was discovered.

The identity-theft case involved financing for bogus accounts receivable and the “fraudulent acquisition of an $18,000 check after Filter purported to sell his leased vehicle and obtain clear title,” prosecutors said.

Filter pleaded guilty in November to the identity-theft charges and was sentenced simultaneously on the Ponzi charges.