Florida AG Gets Guilty Plea In Statewide Mortgage Fraud / Home Improvement Scam

In Central Florida, WFTS-TV reports:

• Attorney General Bill McCollum announced Monday that a former Hillsborough County resident was convicted of multiple charges of racketeering and conspiracy to commit racketeering and was sentenced to eight years in prison. Bradford C. Peck was the point person for a multi-million dollar mortgage fraud scam that stretched across the state and involved one of the nation’s largest sub-prime mortgage companies.

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• "This scheme preyed on people who were trying to make improvements to their homes and instead were victimized and cheated out of not only the home repairs but also their hard-earned money," said Attorney General McCollum. "Without the cooperation of state and local law enforcement, this criminal operation might still be in business." Peck, 31, was part of a criminal enterprise which submitted nearly 130 loan applications to Argent Mortgage Company which resulted in funding for approximately $13 million in home loans. [...] The construction work, when provided, was often substandard and incomplete. [...] Argent executives and outside counsel cooperated with the investigation and assisted the victims in this case, many of whom were facing potential foreclosure actions.

For more, see Hillsborough man pleads guilty to mortgage fraud.

See also, St. Petersburg Times: Mortgage fraud figure gets 8 years in prison.

For Florida AG's news release, see Key Player in Mortgage Fraud Scheme Gets 8 Years in Prison (Statewide scheme victimized dozens of individuals).

Go here for earlier posts on this prosecution.

For other posts on builders & contractors accused of stiffing customers, go here and go here. contractors stiff subs customers zeta scott almeida