A federal jury took less than an hour Friday morning to find Ballentine, 43, guilty on six counts connected to a $10 million mortgage scam.
Ballentine hung his head, frowned and mouthed the word “Man” as the verdicts were announced by U.S. District Judge Matthew Kennelly.
Evidence during the trial showed Ballentine used straw buyers to obtain mortgages on properties they never intended to live in. In some cases, he attended closings for the same phony purchasers at two different properties within three days of each other, each time telling the straw buyers to lie on their mortgage forms.
Ballentine uses the handle @truthfighter1 on twitter, but during closing arguments at the end of a week-long trial Thursday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Boutros told jurors “Warren Ballentine is not on trial because he’s a truth fighter—he’s on trial because he fought against the truth.”
Loan applications Ballentine submitted were “shot through with lies,” Boutros said.