A Jacksonville title agent who was the owner of Premier Title Group Inc. has pleaded guilty to bank fraud last Friday afternoon for serving as the closing agent during a mortgage fraud scheme.
According to court documents, Juan Gonzalez orchestrated the fraudulent scheme by agreeing to buy residential real estate properties at significantly inflated prices rather than the agreed purchase price. Gonzalez recruited third-party buyers who entered into a second contract for the property using the fraudulently appraised value as the purchase price.
Gonzalez applied for mortgage loans under the name of the third-party buyer where he used false information about the buyers to receive approval for the loans from mortgage lenders.
Acting as the closing agent, Strickland prepared a standard settlement statement that identified various expenses, payments, and disbursements related to the transaction. According to Strickland's plea agreement, on one settlement statement, she represented that the purchase price of the property was $725,000, which was really the inflated appraised value. However, the real purchase price that Gonzalez negotiated with the sellers was $570,000.
Strickland said in her plea agreement that she knew that two contracts existed, but did not inform the regional bank (Lehman Brothers Bank) of these facts.
Strickland also falsely represented on the settlement statement that the third-party buyer would make a $70,694 downpayment, but this did not occur. During the closing, Strickland informed the bank that all closing conditions had been met, therefore leading the bank to disburse a first mortgage loan of $581,239 and a second mortgage loan of $104,170.
After the bank disbursed the funds, Strickland issued a check to Gonzalez for $155,000, which represented the difference between the actual purchase price and the inflated appraised value. Gonzalez, who has pleaded guilty for this scheme and has been sentenced to seven years in prison, deposited the funds at a financial institution and obtained a cashier's check in the name of the third-party buyer for the downpayment. Gonzalez then provided this check to Strickland, who deposited it into her title agency's escrow account as the downpayment for the transaction.
Strickland faces a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison for her involvement in this scheme. She has also agreed to forfeit $178,625 in fees she received from transactions that were part of the mortgage fraud scheme and to pay restitution claims of $531,356 made by victims of this offense.
