George French Jones, Jr., 50, of Santa Monica, California,
was sentenced to 116 months in prison today by U.S. District Judge Robert N.
Scola in Miami, after previously pleading guilty to mail fraud and identity
theft charges in connection with a mortgage fraud scheme involving two
waterfront residential properties in Broward County, Florida. He was also ordered to pay $1,824,581 in
restitution.
Ariana Fajardo Orshan, U.S. Attorney for the Southern
District of Florida, and George L. Piro, Special Agent in Charge, Federal
Bureau of Investigation (FBI) made the announcement.
According to information disclosed in open court, in early
2018 Jones identified two residential properties in Fort Lauderdale, Florida,
which Jones fraudulently pledged as collateral in order to obtain mortgage
loans from a private lender.
The two Broward County properties were owned by corporate
entities that Jones had no affiliation with and which were in fact owned by
independent third parties. To execute his fraudulent loan scheme, Jones created
fake identification documents and email addresses in order to impersonate
officers of the corporate owners of the two properties. Jones then submitted
bogus loan applications and other documents to a private lender in which he
pretended to be the owners of the Fort Lauderdale properties. As a result of
this scheme, Jones defrauded the private lender out of approximately $1.7
million dollars.
U.S. Attorney Fajardo Orshan commended the investigative
efforts of the FBI. This case was
prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher Browne. Assistant U.S. Attorney Nalina Sombuntham is
handling the asset forfeiture aspects of the prosecution.
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