PITTSBURGH — An Allegheny County businessman was sentenced Thursday to 16 months in federal prison, after being convicted of conspiracy to commit bank fraud and filing a false tax return.

U. S. District Court Judge Arthur J. Schwab handed down the sentence to Joseph Nocito Jr., 44, of Sewickley, and also ordered him to spend two years on probation following his jail sentence, and to pay restitution of $1.87 million and a $25,000 fine.

The sentence comes after Nocito allegedly participated “knowingly and willfully” in a complex bank fraud scheme connected to property in Florida which a childhood friend bought in 2005, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Pittsburgh.

In 2007, when the home couldn’t be sold and the friend, Mark Sosso, couldn’t make mortgage payments, Nocito used Castle Mortgage Co., which he was president of, to secure a multi-million-dollar mortgage loan from Washington Mutual Bank under false pretenses.

In a news release Thursday, prosecutors said Nocito falsely represented the value of the Florida property to get the $2.37 million mortgage loan. Nocito was paid $458,350 in kickbacks taken from the mortgage loan, according to the office’s release.

Prosecutors said Nocito also filed a false tax return that year, claiming his income was $88,269 when it was actually $529,619.

Nocito’s father, Joseph Nocito Sr., is also the subject of a federal investigation involving allegations that he tried to hide millions of dollars from the Internal Revenue Service. He is the owner of the Olde Stonewall Golf Course in Ellwood City