New trial possible

weeks of listening to often mind-numbing testimony and reviewing page after page of mortgage and bank documents, the jury deliberated only about an hour before finding the Nassidas guilty of bank fraud and conspiracy to commit bank and wire fraud.

“I think the outcome will be the same,” Mr. Levenson said of a second trial.

The U.S. Attorney’s office declined to comment.

Prosecutors said Nassida, 48, of Pleasant Hills, who started Century III in 1994, headed a conspiracy that used inflated borrower incomes and assets, along with fake property appraisals, to fool lenders into making millions of dollars in fraudulent loans. The motive was greed, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Brendan Conway, who said James Nassida lived a lavish lifestyle on the proceeds of his schemes.

Janna Nassida, 45, of West Mifflin, was the No. 2 official and a loan officer in the company and helped with the fraud.

Over the last two years, numerous loan officers at the company had pleaded guilty and become government witnesses against the Nassidas as the government built its case.

Prosecutors and agents said Century III had become an “incubator” for mortgage fraud schemes in the 2000s, and the investigation generated other cases for the mortgage fraud task force here.