Ever since the end of last year, we’ve been waiting for the feds to indict Shawn Portmann, a former home lender who allegedly used every trick in the book, and created a few of his own, to issue a massive number of fraudulent mortgages through Tacoma’s Pierce Commercial Bank, since closed by regulators. There’s still no indictment, but the feds are obviously moving in. In the past few weeks, the U.S. Attorney’s office has filed bank-fraud charges against four former employees of Pierce Commercial’s home-lending division, which Portmann ran. What’s more, all four worked directly for Portmann, according to a former employee of the bank, speaking with SW on condition of anonymity. One–Jason Rick–was “practically [Portmann’s] best friend,” the former employee says. The latest filing of charges came down yesterday. The accused is Tonya Ruf, who worked as both a processor and an underwriter for Portmann’s Puyallup operation between 2004 and 2008. The charging document says Ruf “reviewed and fraudulently approved loan applications” which contained false statements and phony documents meant to make it seem like borrowers could afford properties that they in fact could not. The feds are making similar allegations against Rick, Jill Redding, and Katherine Friske, all former processors. Many of the examples cited echo what we wrote in our cover story on Portmann back in January. The four stand accused of providing false employment information, for instance. But the documents offer some interesting details. One way that Portmann’s minions allegedly inflated borrowers’ incomes was to submit documents purporting to show that they were leasing properties for significant sums of money. Rick, for example, offered paperwork showing that a borrower was renting a Bothell property for $4,500 a month, according to the charging document. No such lease agreement existed. Rick and his colleagues also submitted copies of cashiers’ checks that supposedly went to pay off borrowers’ debts, thereby making their clients’ look financially solvent, according to the document. If the cashiers’ checks were real, they were never sent. Friske pleaded guilty just one day after the charging papers against her were filed; Redding a week later. You’ve got to believe they had a deal already worked out when the feds went public with the charges–a deal that presumably includes spilling dirt on their former boss. Their plea agreements are sealed. The rest have not yet entered pleas. While the four were all low-level players compared to Portmann, their potential penalties are serious business. Bank fraud carries a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison.Follow The Daily Weekly on Facebook and Twitter.