Florida AG Files Civil Suit Against Alleged Real Estate Scammer Currently Awaiting Trial On Tax Evasion Charges; Tipped Off By Pennsylvania AG

From the Florida Attorney General's Office:

• Attorney General Bill McCollum [last week] sued a Florida real estate company and its Pennsylvania owner, alleging the company has engaged in deceptive advertising to make Florida property sales. Neither Jim Platts nor his company, A Realty Rx, LLC, have licenses to operate as Florida real estate brokers. Additionally, the company allegedly uses false testimonials and other deceptive practices to advertise Florida real estate. [...] According to an investigation conducted by the Broward Sheriff’s Office, Platts has also attempted to negotiate at least one telephone sale from Pennsylvania, where he is currently serving pretrial house arrest pending trial on Federal tax evasion charges.

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• The Attorney General’s Economic Crimes Division was alerted to Platts’ deceptive practices by the Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office, which recently filed a similar lawsuit against Platts and his Pennsylvania company. The lawsuit alleges a litany of deceptive practices, including the use of false and misleading advertising, acting as a real estate broker without a license, wrongfully filing notices of pending lawsuits, engaging in the business of secondary mortgage lending without a license, foreclosure rescue through fraudulent short sale negotiations, and other violations of Pennsylvania real estate and residential mortgage loan statutes.

For more, see Pennsylvania Man Sued for Attempting Deceptive Property Sales in Florida (Individual tried to take advantage of Floridians while out on bond for tax evasion charges).

For a related story, see North Hills businessman convicted of tax evasion (A federal jury found James C. Platts, 56, former owner of Pinnacle Building Co., guilty on five counts.).

Go here for prior posts on James Platts.

To view the Florida AG's lawsuit, see State of Florida v. A Realty Rx, LLC., and Jim Platts (among the practices Platts has been accused of in the past is foreclosure rescue through
fraudulent short sale negotiations).