Thursday, June 16, 2016

Tampa Feds Indict Convicted White Collar Scammer Of Add'l Crimes Involving Alleged Attempt To Satisfy Defaulted Mortgage On His Residence With Fraudulent Paperwork

In Tampa, Florida, the Tampa Bay Business Journal reports:
  • A federal grand jury in Tampa has indicted a former Tampa man, alleging he tried to defraud two banks in a mortgage repayment scheme.

    The June 2 indictment, charging Leigh Fiske with two counts of bank fraud, is the latest in a series of charges against Fiske. He faces 10 counts of bank and wire fraud from a separate indictment in late March. In 2014, a federal judge in California sentenced Fiske to 37 months in federal prison after he pled guilty to defrauding small businesses.

    The latest indictment focuses on events in 2008 and 2009, involving a property on Spruce Street in Tampa, where Fiske maintained a residence and had a mortgage.

    When the mortgage went into default, Fiske sent documents, including a fraudulent note, to Wells Fargo Bank and U.S. Bank, purporting to pay off the mortgage, the indictment said, “when in fact such documents represented and conveyed nothing of monetary value, were fraudulent, and could not and did not satisfy the defendant’s loan obligation.”

    The intended loss of the scheme was more than $650,000, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Florida, A. Lee Bentley III.