South Florida Feds Charge Trio In Straw Buyer Mortgage Fraud Scheme

The U.S. Attorney's Office in Miami, Florida announced last week that Hugo Rodriguez, 52, Ronald Gordan Lichte, 65, Connie Marie Cullifer, 58, and John C. Kelly, 67 were charged for their alleged participation in a multi-million dollar mortgage fraud conspiracy. Defendant Rodriguez is a Miami real estate investor; Lichte (licensed mortgage broker), Cullifer (Lichte's loan processor), and Kelly (a straw buyer) are all from Tampa. According to a press release:

• According to the charges, the defendants were involved in a scheme in which Rodriguez would locate luxury condominiums and residential properties that were available for purchase. Rodriguez and Lichte would then recruit and pay straw buyers, including defendant Kelly, to use their names, credit histories, and signatures on mortgage loan documents to obtain financing to purchase the properties. Rodriguez, Lichte and Cullifer would then prepare fraudulent mortgage loan applications for the straw buyers. [...] The applications also included HUD-1 settlement statements that falsely stated the straw buyers were using their own money to cover the closings. In fact, however, the straw buyers were not using their own funds to cover the closing.

For more, see U.S. Attorney's Press Release.

See also, Local investor charged in mortgage fraud (South Florida Business Journal).