St. Louis man pleads guilty to arson, fraud charges

April 30--ST. LOUIS -- A St. Louis man pleaded guilty Thursday to charges he set fired to a home as part of an insurance fraud scheme.

Mardell McGee, 46, pleaded guilty in federal court to one felony count of mail fraud and one felony count of arson in furtherance of mail fraud. When McGee is sentenced Aug. 3, he faces a mandatory 10-year sentence on the arson charge, and up to 20 years more for mail fraud.

Prosecutors say Mcgee owned businesses that bought, rehabbed, rented and sold residential properties, prosecutors said. In late 2011, he sold a St. Louis house to a "woman with whom he had a relationship and a child" for $100,000, financing its purchase through one of his businesses, Nationwide Lending Services, they said.

In the early morning of Feb. 27, 2012, McGee set a fire at the house, according to court documents. McGee was involved in the insurance claim, which later resulted in a $80,265 check to the homeowner and Nationwide Lending, the U.S. Attorney's office said. McGee deposited the entire check in a Nationwide Lending bank account he opened the same day.

Nine months later, on Nov. 7, State Farm, the insurance carrier, asked for the money back. Six days after that, McGee transferred $55,000 of the money to two other accounts he controlled, prosecutors said.

In a federal civil lawsuit filed in January 2014 by another insurance company, McGee was accused of involvement in a June 13, 2013, arson that damaged a Calverton Park home. That case was settled.

In 2005, McGee was sentenced to 366 days in prison after pleading guilty of one count of making false statements on HUD applications and one count of misusing a Social Security number. He was also ordered to repay $230,481.

Robert Patrick covers federal courts and federal law enforcement for the Post-Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter: @rxpatrick.

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