• By
  • Patrick Fitzgerald
Bloomberg News
Lee Farkas

The U.S. government says it’s uncovered more of Lee Farkas’s ill-gotten gains, and it wants the convicted former Taylor, Bean & Whitaker Mortgage Corp. leader to hand them over.

Among the toys the government wants the disgraced mortgage lender to cough up are a 1963 Rolls Royce, a 1929 Ford Model A “Woody,” a 1958 Mercedes and a handful of Cadillacs.

In a request filed in federal court in Alexandria, Va., prosecutors are seeking the forfeiture of an additional $11.4 million Farkas acquired from Taylor Bean and funneled though his Florida general partnership. That figure is in addition to the $30.7 million the government is already seeking, bringing the total amount sought by the feds to $42.2 million

The government says it can’t find most of the proceeds from Farkas’s crimes, so it’s seeking the forfeiture of about eight properties in Florida, Maine and Georgia properties and nearly a dozen luxury cars as a substitute in partial payment for the money judgment against the convicted mortgage lender.

The government is seeking the forfeiture of a pair Ocala, Fla., properties with a combined value in excess of $1.7 million, a Maine home valued at $1.2 million and Fort Lauderdale property valued at $780,000. The sports cars the government wants from Farkas also include a 2005 Morgan, a 1973 Triumph and a 1965 Shelby Cobra. They also want his three Caddies, a 1932 Ford and a 2008 Infiniti.

Farkas built Taylor Bean from a small mortgage company into the nation’s largest mortgage lender not owned by a bank.  His lawyer has balked at the government’s forfeiture bid, arguing the feds haven’t proved the money funneled to his partnership was tied to the fraud and not money generated by Taylor Bean’s legitimate operations.

In any event, the $42.2 million judgment represents just a fraction of the billions of dollars Farkas plundered from Taylor Bean and Colonial Bank. His fraud led to the collapses and subsequent bankruptcies of the mortgage lender and the bank’s parent. In April, a federal jury convicted him of 14 counts of conspiracy and bank, wire and securities fraud.

Judge Leonie M. Brinkema of the U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va., is scheduled to consider the government’s forfeiture request on June 27, the same day she’s slated to sentence Farkas. He faces life behind bars.