Six Cop Guilty Pleas In Alleged $17M Miami Mortgage Fraud; Charges Against Nine Others Still Pending

From a Florida Attorney General press release:

• Attorney General Bill McCollum [...] announced that six South Florida individuals have pleaded guilty to their roles in a criminal mortgage fraud operation that defrauded several financial institutions out of more than $17 million. The six were among 15 who were arrested in July after a 10-month investigation conducted by the Miami-Dade Police Department's Mortgage Fraud Task Force, the United States Secret Service and the Attorney General's Office of Statewide Prosecution. The defendants faced charges of racketeering, conspiracy to commit racketeering, mortgage fraud, grand theft, identity theft and money laundering.

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• Authorities believe the scheme involved the use of two separate title companies located in Miami-Dade County. The conspiring title agents would prepare fraudulent HUD-1 statements on behalf of the other co-conspirators which would then be provided to the lender. [...] Many of the HUD-1 statements involved in this case contained fraudulently inflated sales contract prices. [...] Upon receiving the fraudulent HUD-1 statement, the lender would fund the loan believing the property sold for the inflated sales price. The title agent, acting on behalf of the other co-conspirators, would then transfer the fraudulently obtained profits into a bank account of either a third party or a shell company controlled by one of the co-conspirators.(1)

For more, see 6 Miami-Dade Mortgage Fraud Defendants Plead Guilty To Roles In $17 Million Mortgage Fraud Enterprise.

(1) According to the press release, those copping guilty pleas were: Monica Fergusson, Diana Diaz, Mari Matilde Leony Rodriguez-Triana, Raisa Diaz, Mario Lubian, and Marlene Norono.