Top managers of Greensboro, North Carolina-based Phoenix Housing Group (PHG), a manufactured and modular housing retailer in North and South Carolina, have been charged with selling more than 1,100 homes in North Carolina financed with fraudulently-secured government backed loans, resulting in millions of dollars in losses to federal loan programs. Company personnel regularly manipulated credit reports so their customers would qualify, and then persuaded buyers to sign mortgages that were much higher than originally promised. Even in cases where the buyer defaulted, the loan company got paid because the loans were federally insured. Employees were encouraged to make sales even if customers could not afford the homes. As charlotteobserver informs MHProNews, even after the federal probe began employees continued to make fraudulent sales. Loan officers destroyed documents and told witnesses to lie as a means of impeding the investigation. PHG was forced to discontinue operations.
