Mortgage Broker Indicted in $10 Million Fraud Scheme

MIAMI, FL - Federal and state law enforcment agents, announced the unsealing of a forty-seven (47) count Indictment against eleven individuals for their participation in a complex mortgage fraud scheme involving more than thirty (30) properties bought and sold in Broward County. The fraud resulted in the issuance of approximately $10,000,000 in mortgage loans. This investigation was named “Operation Whose House,” because, as a result of the defendants’ fraud, public property records did not accurately reflect the true ownership of the properties bought and sold by these defendants.

Charged in the Indictment are defendants Yvette Scott Patterson, 40, formerly of Lauderhill and now in Jamaica, Delroy Patterson, 45, formerly of Lauderhill and now also in Jamaica, Christine Brown, 30, of Fort Lauderdale, Megan McGuire, 40, of Miramar, Roosevelt Dozier, 39, of Hollywood, Ishmael Grant, 59, of Lauderhill, Mavis Grant, 62, of Lauderhill, Adewui Majaro, 42, of North Miami, Mark Reid, 36, of Miramar, Audrey Lynch, 36, of Fort Lauderdale, and Fitzgerald Puddie, 32, of Hollywood and Toronto, Canada. All defendants are charged in a conspiracy to commit mail fraud, wire fraud and aggravated identity fraud, and with several substantive counts of mail fraud, wire fraud and aggravated identity fraud. Defendant Yvette Scott Patterson is individually charged with making a false statement in a passport application in July 2003.

According to the Indictment, the defendants engaged in a scheme to enrich themselves by obtaining mortgages from lenders using straw purchasers and through the submission of false documentation, including false loan applications, false employment verification forms, false salary statements, and false bank account statements reflecting high account balances. The defendants also allegedly used and caused others to use false or stolen Florida’s driver’s licenses, identification cards, and social security numbers as their personal identification at closings, in order to purchase property in the names of individuals whose identification documents had been previously stolen.

If convicted, the defendants face a maximum term of imprisonment of up to five years on the conspiracy count (Count 1), up to twenty years’ imprisonment on each of the mail and wire fraud counts (Counts 2 - 20), from two to fifteen years’ imprisonment on the aggravated identity fraud counts (Counts 21- 46), and up to ten years’ imprisonment on the false passport count (Count 47).