The legislation, which will head to Gov. Charlie Crist for signing, also creates a remedy for some of the damage mortgage fraud can inflict on neighborhoods and condominium buildings in the form of higher property taxes.
Florida has become a hotbed for real estate fraud, one of the fastest growing white-collar crimes in the nation, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the state leads the nation in the number of complaints of suspected fraud from lenders.
SCHEMES
Mortgage-fraud schemes typically involve inflated appraisals, which criminals need to siphon funds -- as cash under the table, heftier fees and commissions, and usually all three -- from bigger loans.
Bogus sales data consequently can enter the pool of values that property appraisers use to derive tax assessments on surrounding homes, leading to higher property taxes for those homeowners.
The legislation, sponsored by Sen. Gwen Margolis, a Miami Beach Democrat, requires law enforcement to promptly notify the appraiser when probable cause for fraud exists and that may have affected the value of a given property. The appraiser then may reasses the home and those around it.
POLICE REACTION
Glenn Theobald, chief counsel for Miami-Dade County Police Deparment, which backed the bill, said the department was ready to deliver suspicious properties to the property appraiser once the bill becomes law. He would not say where the properties were located.
''It's going to be some of these places where there are a lot of foreclosures. We've identified those as having a lot of mortgage fraud,'' Theobald said.
PENALTIES INCREASED
The legislation increases the penalty of mortgage fraud on home loans for more than $100,000 to a second-degree felony, rather than a third-degree felony and punishable by up to 15 years in prison and up to $10,000 in fines.
''There have been so many cases and so many people victimized, so many units,'' Theobald said, ``[Criminals] need to pay a higher price for their crimes.''
FRAUD CONVICTION
Last week, Richard Crowder II, the architect of a $37 million mortgage-fraud scheme involving 17 luxury condos on South Beach was sentenced to nine years in prison. His accomplices, former title attorney Gary Mills, who owned Deerfield Beach-based Four Star Title, and former Wachovia loan officer, Karen Lynn Sullivan were sentenced respectively to 46 months and 50 months.
