Myrtle Beach man sentenced 5 years for wire fraud

A Myrtle Beach man has been sentenced to spend 5 years and 3 months in a federal prison for a wire fraud charge he pleaded guilty to last July.

Shayne Harrison Smith will serve 5 years under federal supervised release after he completes his term of imprisonment, Acting United States Attorney Beth Drake stated in a release Thursday. Smith was also ordered to pay $2,213,307.99 in restitution to the victims in his case.

United States District Judge R. Bryan Harwell, of Florence, imposed the sentence, according to the release.

Smith was involved in a "mortgage rescue scheme" in which he convinced distressed homeowners that he could negotiate better terms of repayment with their lenders, according to information presented at an earlier hearing.

Prosecutors say Smith required the victims to pay him fees which he used for his own benefit.

He encouraged some of the homeowners to cease communicating with their lenders and stop making payments to the lenders, because he would take care of everything, but Smith never successfully renegotiated any of the mortgages, according to the release.

The case was investigated by the FBI. Assistant United States Attorney John C. Potterfield of the Columbia United States Attorney’s Office prosecuted the case.

This story was originally published July 14, 2016 at 6:01 PM with the headline "Myrtle Beach man sentenced 5 years for wire fraud."