Broker gets light sentence

BRADENTON — A federal judge handed down a reduced sentence to former local mortgage broker John Miller for his role in the Coast Bank loan fraud case.

Miller was sentenced July 19 to serve three months in a federal prison camp, followed by three months of home detention and three years of probation. Miller, a onetime executive with American Mortgage Link, could have received up to 24 months in prison from a plea deal he agreed to with federal prosecutors in 2008.

But prosecutors and the judge noted that Miller aided the case against Coast Bank executive Philip Coon. Coon pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering and was recently sentenced to serve 18 months in federal prison. Prosecutors estimated that Coon took more than $1 million from roughly 150 Coast Bank customers through a small percentage surcharge on the bank's loans.

St. Louis-based First Banks Inc. acquired Coast Bank in 2007.