I.D. Theft Suspect Convicted Of Swiping Property Title From Fellow Inmate To Post Bail, Then Fleeing Country With Girlfriend

In Southern California, The Orange County Register reports:

• A Tustin man who had tried to flee to Mexico was convicted [last week] of committing a $2.8 million fraud by stealing the identities of more than a dozen people who hoped to invest in real estate. Gene Anthony Franklin Jr., 34, held himself out as a legitimate real estate investor to secure his victims' personal information, then used the data to buy a home, obtain credit cards and pay his bills, said Deputy District Attorney Yvette Patko. He also illegally transferred properties from a fellow jail inmate to post his own criminal bail and flee the country, prosecutors said.

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• While in custody [on identity theft charges], he was rooming in jail with Marvin Vernis Smith, who was convicted of killing his wife. Franklin became friends with Smith, and learned that Smith had transferred one of his properties to his daughter so she could pay for legal fees, prosecutors said. Franklin forged property transfer documents that showed that his ex-girlfriend – Iris Orozco – owned three of Smith's properties, valued at almost $2 million, around October 2007, prosecutors said.

• Using one of the properties as collateral, Franklin posted his $1 million and fled to Mexico with Orozco, prosecutors said. He was caught in March 2008, and brought back to Orange County.

For more, see Ex-fugitive is convicted in $2.8 million identity theft (Gene Anthony Franklin of Tustin duped convicted murderer so he could post bail, prosecutors said).

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