Attorney pleads guilty in Boca Raton mortgage scam

By Palm Beach Business.com

WEST PALM BEACH — A Palm Beach Gardens attorney faces as much as 30 years in prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy charges in connection with a mortgage scam that targeted Washington Mutual and other lenders.

Joseph Miller, 63, of Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, pleaded guilty Monday to conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud and is to be sentenced on August 9 by federal Judge Donald M. Middlebrooks.

According to court documents, acted as the attorney and title agent on mortgage loans that were obtained with false loan applications to Washington Mutual and others. Others allegedlyinvolved in the scam include Jason Vitulano, Peter Hartofilis, Robert Hofler, and Steve Vento. Vitulano, Hofler and Vento have pleaded guilty and are awaiting sentencing. The case against Hartofilis remains pending.

According to court documents, Vitulano, a branch manager at TopDot Mortgage in Boca Raton, and others devised a scheme to submit fraudulent loan applications to numerous lenders. The false loan applications grossly inflated the loan applicants’ earnings and assets on deposit in a local bank.

Vitulano recruited Miller to act as closing and title agent on a number of these loans. iller agreed to divert proceeds of the loans to the personal accounts of Vitulano, Hartofilis and others involved in the scam..

Hofler, a vice president at First Southern Bank in Boca Raton, plead guilty to the conspiracy charge on April 8. According to court documents, Hofler used his position with the bank to falsify documents stating that the prospective loan applicants had large balances on deposit at First Southern, which was not true. Relying on these documents, lenders approved more than $5 million in mortgage loans for homes in Palm Beach and Broward Counties.

Defendant Steve Vento bought two properties, each valued at the time at more than $1 million, by submitting false loan applications through Top Dot mortgage.Vento is scheduled for sentencing on July 13.

Vitulano, the Top Dot Mortgage branch manager and alleged leader of the conspiracy scheme, is scheduled to be sentenced on July 19.

All defendants face a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison on each of the counts against them.

 

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