HUD officer convicted of lying to get First Tennessee loan

First Tennessee Bank

An Atlanta federal jury has convicted Herschell Harvell, Jr., a former special agent in charge with the Office of Inspector General for the Department of Housing and Urban Development has been convicted of two counts of making false statements to First Tennessee National Bank to obtain a loan, a news release states.

In the release, acting U.S. Attorney John Horn said that Harvell, a federal law enforcement officer with supervisory responsibility for mortgage fraud investigations and other matters involving false statements, “violated the law he was sworn to enforce by making false statements to obtain a loan to finance his own private business interests.”

According to evidence and testimony in court, Harvell had been an agent with HUD-OIG for more than 12 years. In 2008, Harwell was stationed in Los Angeles but owned six rental homes in the Atlanta area, all with mortgages. The same year he opened a Precision Tune franchise in the Atlanta area, with startup costs ranging from $100,000 to $200,000.

Harwell paid for part of the purchase by cashing in a $70,000 certficate of deposit, and he also used some of those proceeds to pay expenses on the rental uits.

Then, in March 2008, Harvell refinanced one of his rental homes through First Tennessee, signing a loan application for $165,000 and receiving $23,000 from the bank.