INDIANAPOLIS -- An Indianapolis man was charged this week in connection with a scheme in which people allegedly conspired to trick banks into lending them millions of dollars in mortgage loans.

James Lee Spicer, 32, has agreed to plead guilty to two counts of conspiracy to commit mail fraud, the local U.S. attorney's office said. Authorities allege that Spicer was an appraiser hired by people conspiring with him to fraudulently obtain homes mortgage loans -- much of which allegedly was pocketed by people who were in on the scheme.

Authorities said co-conspirators bought cheap housing and then recruited people to apply for loans to buy the homes at prices two or four times the actual worth. The buyers applied for the mortgage loans using documentation supporting the false worth, including dozens of false appraisals supplied by Spicer from late 2000 to October 2002, authorities said.

Money obtained from the loans was shared among the co-conspirators, who allowed the loans to go into default, the federal government alleges.

Authorities said Spicer, from late 2000 to early 2002, prepared 83 fraudulent appraisals for an Indianapolis-based mortgage brokerage business called Promised Land Mortgage, which is accused of fraudulently obtaining $4,207,400 in loans from a Michigan lending institution.

Authorities also said Spicer, from early 2002 to October 2002, prepared 56 fraudulent appraisals for Indianapolis-based American Saving Mortgage, which is accused of fraudulently obtaining $2,906,500 in loans from a Kentucky bank.

Ten other people have been indicted in the American Savings Mortgage case. They are set for a trial in October before a federal judge.