Shabazz Muhammad's father indicted for mortgage fraud

Shabazz Muhammad's father, Ron Holmes, recently admiited he lied about his son's age. (Jeff Gross/Getty Images)

The father of former UCLA basketball star Shabazz Muhammad was indicted Thursday on federal bank fraud and conspiracy charges, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

The indictment states Ronald Holmes and his partners obtained “mortgage loans by fraudulent means to buy houses,” from 2006 to 2009. The U.S. Attorney's office is seeking to recover $2.5 million from Holmes. Holmes is being detained pending a detention hearing, according to the report.

This is not the first time Holmes has faced fraud charges tied to mortgages. He pleaded guilty to using fraudulent bank statements in order to obtain mortgages in 1999. Holmes' plea agreement included paying a restitution fee of approximately $78,000 to banks and credit unions that he committed the fraud against.

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Another apparent case of Holmes' deception tied to his plan to groom Muhammad into a college and NBA prospect recently made headlines. In March, the Los Angeles Timesrevealed he had lied about Muhammad's age, posing that his son was a year younger to gain an athletic advantage and raise his NBA value.

Holmes even appeared to offer a Los Angeles Times reporter a job as his son's publicist.

From the Los Angeles Times:

Holmes has spent two decades navigating the cutthroat realm of amateur basketball and college recruiting. He made sure Muhammad worked out with some of the sport's finest trainers. He enrolled his son in one of the nation's best high school basketball programs. He helped create a team tailored to showcase his boy's strengths in the high-profile summer circuit. And somewhere along the line, the year was shaved off his son's stated age, giving Muhammad an edge over players in his age group. "Bazz is going to blow up in the NBA lets team up and blow this thing up!!!" Holmes wrote to a Times reporter in a text message. "I'm going to need a publicist anyway why shouldn't it be you. We can do some big things together."

Holmes expressed concern about disclosure of his son's true age and questioned whether it was newsworthy.