A federal jury is now deliberating in the case of a disbarred Washington state attorney accused of participating in a $7 million mortgage fraud perpetrated with the help of a company he operated and a sometime client who had faced prior fraud allegations.

Robert Ernest Brandt, 41, is charged with six counts including conspiracy and wire fraud concerning his high-volume Escrow Authority mortgage company's allegedly fraudulent loans to straw buyers. His lawyer says Brandt was duped by sometime client William Anderson, who Brandt considered a friend. But prosecutors contend Brandt knew about the fraud and furthered it by falsifying mortgage loan documents that facilitated bad loans and led to dozens of mortgage foreclosures, reports the Seattle Times.

Documents in the case also accuse Brandt of funding some purchases with money improperly taken from his law firm trust account, through which as much as $28 million a month was moving because of the Escrow Authority business. In 2005, Brandt gave up his law license after complaints were made about claimed trust account irregularities.