Wednesday, September 26, 2007

2 Plead Guilt in Florida Fraud Scheme

Justin D. Barker, 31, and Robert W. Hulbert, Jr., 45, both of Jacksonville, Florida, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire and bank fraud. The maximum penalty faced by both individuals is 30 years imprisonment, a fine in the amount of $1 million, a term of supervised release of up to five years, and special assessment of $100.

According to the plea agreements and the criminal information, between January 2005 and June 2006, Barker negotiated with sellers of residential real estate properties, who executed Purchase and Sale Agreements to sell their properties at a given price. A co-conspirator, who was a licensed real estate appraiser, then fraudulently appraised the properties at substantially higher amounts than those stated on the Purchase and Sale Agreements. The conspirators provided a second, fraudulent, Purchase and Sale Agreement—showing the inflated appraisal price—along with various fraudulent loan application documents, to lenders, including federally insured lending institutions. Based on the fraudulent documents, the lenders approved loans in the amounts of the inflated appraisals.

The properties included:

13782 Sand Pebble Ct. Jacksonville, Florida;

1994 Norton Hill Dr., Jacksonville, Florida; and

19098 W 164th Terrace, Olathe, Kansas.

Hulbert, as the manager of the Jacksonville branch of Nations Title Agency of Florida, operated as the closing agent for the transactions. At the closings, Hulbert would disburse funds from the lenders, providing the sellers with checks in the amount of the original sales prices, and providing the remainder of the loan funds—the proceeds of the fraud—to one or more of the conspirators.

The fraudulently obtained mortgages resulted in lenders extending approximately $17.7 million in mortgage loans, which would not have been approved but for the fraudulent documents. The conspirators grossed approximately $4.024 milion in proceeds from the fraudulent transactions.

The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Susan Humes Raab and Arnold B. Corsmeier.

mortgage fraud

1. What happened to the appraiser / co-conspirator?

   Posted by  on  10/17  at  04:23 PM

2. This is so great he is getting punished. The last house he ‘owned’ was on my street, and scary enough, two doors down. I remember he bought it under a different name, moved in, and moved out months later. While he was there though, he rode his motorcycles around. He cleaned his Escalade one a week. He threw parties. He also had this annoying litle dog named Higgins who always pooped in my neighbors yard and he never cleaned it up. I’m pretty sure he had a Louis Vuitton collar for his dog too. Then he left. There was a U-Haul in front of his house for a few days and then he was gone. If you peer through the windows of the house now, you can tell he tried to flip it. He colored the walls lime green, bright yellow, and neon blue. It is not the prettiest colors to paint walls. There are also beer bottles he left there. I feel bad for the family that sold it to him. Well, it’s good he is going to jail. He deserves it. The address I’m referring to is not on here though.

   Posted by  on  06/18  at  04:27 PM

3. My brother and myself were both victims to these guys and both still have homes in our names that we’re currently trying to “short sell”. Of course the banks want to hold us responsible for their losses. What can we do or who can we contact for help with this? We feel lost and helpless. I mean these guys get their prison time and that is some feeling of justice for us. However, our credit and financial futures are a mess with no light at the end of the tunnel. It just doesn’t seem right that the banks all get bail out money and we (also victims not just the banks) are still held fully responsible with no “bail out” help at all.  We’re out of money and have no idea where to seek help with this. Can someone please shed some light on this for me?

   Posted by  on  02/16  at  08:41 AM

4. Some guys who are my neighbours are cheated by the estate company.But they have not any evidence to ask the company to return back the money.Is there any advice to them?Many thanks.

   Posted by  on  07/12  at  06:55 PM