Mortgage Fraud: ‘House King’ Was a Royal Con Man
| filed under: Field Cases, Mortgage Fraud, Fraud, White-Collar CrimeWhen most people buy a home they are required to submit financial paperwork to banks, title companies, and others involved in the mortgage process. The case of the “House King” in South Florida illustrates how when fraudsters manipulate that system, lenders can lose millions—and innocent buyers and sellers also suffer.
Mortgage Fraud: ‘House King’ Was a Royal Con Man
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When most people buy a home they are required to submit financial paperwork to banks, title companies, and others involved in the mortgage process. The case of the “House King” in South Florida illustrates how when fraudsters manipulate that system, lenders can lose millions—and innocent buyers and sellers also suffer.
The House King—Angel Puentes—used a classic loan origination scam to defraud three lending institutions out of approximately $10.5 million. Because of fraudsters like him, South Florida real estate was artificially inflated, and innocent people paid too much for their homes. When the market crashed, many of those homeowners were left under water—their property worth less than what they paid for it.
“Those are the true victims of this type of mortgage fraud,” said Special Agent Mark Soucy—“the legitimate South Florida residents whose home values were inflated because of these fraudulent transactions.”
