The Blotter

U.S. Attorney Roger Handberg announced Carlos Ferrer, 46, of Tampa, Fla., pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud. Ferrer faces a maximum penalty of 30 years in federal prison.

A Miami, Fla., man pleaded guilty to a scheme in which he stole more than $31,920 from the District of Columbia’s HomeSaver program, a foreclosure prevention program administered by the D.C. Housing Finance Agency and funded by the U.S. Department of Treasury.

One of the fastest-growing real estate cyber fraud schemes in 2023 is seller impersonation fraud, where someone finds a vacant or non-owner-occupied property and attempts to impersonate the property owner and sell the property. Using public records, business email compromise and good old-fashioned persistence, these fraudsters try to trick the Realtor, title company and buyer into thinking they are the real owner of the property and can sell the property, all before the real owner gets wind that their property is being sold. You can be part of stopping this crime in its tracks.

The Broward County, Fla., Property Appraiser’s office and the Broward County Sheriff’s Office announced the arrest of a man during an undercover operation at a title company in Cooper City, Fla.

An Osceola County, Fla., mortgage loan officer was sentenced to time in federal prison for bank fraud and aggravated identity theft charges involving forging judges’ signatures.

A New Jersey real estate investor pleaded guilty to one count of an indictment charging him with conspiring to commit wire fraud.

A Franklin, Tenn., man pleaded guilty to fraud in connection with COVID-19 relief programs, mortgage fraud, and money laundering that netted him close to $1 million.

USB agreed to pay $1.435 billion in penalties to settle a civil action filed in November 2018 alleging misconduct related to UBS’ underwriting and issuance of residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) in 2006 and 2007. This settlement resolves the last case brought by a Department of Justice Working Group dedicated to investigating the conduct of banks and other entities for their roles leading up to the 2008 financial crisis.

A Brooklyn, N.Y., man pleaded guilty to grand larceny for a deed fraud scheme in connection with two properties, one in Bedford-Stuyvesant, N.Y., and the other in Bushwick, N.Y. He committed mortgage fraud related to a third property in Park Slope, N.Y.

Two Orange County residents have been charged by a federal grand jury with fraudulently obtaining more than $2 million by stealing the identities of homeowners – primarily elderly Vietnamese Americans – and duping banks into “cashing out” mortgages on their properties.