BSO Bags Three In Alleged Scam Coupling Deed Theft With Recording Phony Mortgage Satisfactions; Attempted Sale "Stung" As Title Company Blows Whistle

In Fort Lauderdale, Florida, the Broward County Sheriff's Office announced:

• [L]ast week, Broward Sheriff’s Office Economic Crime Unit detectives were alerted by a Title Insurance Company, whic[h] was in the process of closing on a home, that they suspected fraud was being committed. BSO detectives looked into the matter and set up an undercover operation that ended with the arrest of 28-year-old Brittany Waldon, 34-year-old Alfred Davis(1) and 30-year-old Clarence Glover.

• Through the investigation, detectives learned that Davis contacted Glover and offered to pay him 10% of the gains from a mortgage fraud scheme (around $30,000), if he could recruit someone willing to participate. Glover recruited Brittany Waldon. She submitted falsified paperwork that transferred the ownership of a home in Deerfield Beach to her.

• The legitimate owner of the home had two outstanding mortgage loans totaling $950,000. On April 13, 2008, two Mortgage Satisfaction documents were recorded in Broward County showing the loans had been paid. BSO detectives contacted the company listed as the lender on those forms and were able to confirm the documents were forged.

• When Davis and Waldon showed up to close on the property this past Tuesday, July 29, undercover detectives went through the closing proceedings with them, and once they thought they had gotten away with their plan, they were placed under arrest. Davis stood to make $284,000 in the transaction by defrauding the private lender of the funds.

• The 2007 Range Rover the suspects drove to the closing was seized, and during an inventory search, detectives found paperwork indicating Davis was in the process of carrying out the same scheme on other properties.

Source: Broward Sheriff's Office news release: Mortgage Fraud Scheme Lands Felon Back In Jail.

(1) According to the news release, Davis had been released from federal prison in June 2006 after serving 33 months for bank fraud and is currently on federal probation.