Six Southwest Florida Residents Busted For Conspiracy, Elaborate Mortgage Scam

Several Southwest Florida residents have been snared by authorities in conjunction with a wide-ranging conspiracy to commit mortgage fraud, the Sarasota Herald-Tribune has learned.

While Neil Mohamed Husani, a real estate investor, made deals that dramatically boosted some home values by tens of millions of dollars in the region, another group of Southwest Florida investors are collectively facing prison time for doing the same thing.

Todd A. Kolbe will spend 30 months in federal prison for organizing an elaborate scheme that bilked a Florida mortgage lender out of at least $3 million by artificially boosting the value of local real estate.

Kirk McVey, Kolbe’s business partner and also his significant other, will also spend 30 months in prison for his role. Amy Samelson Kolbe, Kolbe’s sister-in-law, has been sentenced to four years’ probation.

The methods used by Kolbe and his associates during the Southwest Florida housing market boom of 2001-2005 have hurt average citizens.

By grossly inflating the value of area real estate to qualify for Florida home loans that more than covered their original purchases, they put banks in danger of losses, distorted the local real estate market and increased property assessments — and therefore, property taxes — in two counties.

The fate of three others involved in the fraud scheme will be determined starting later this week. All three other accomplices have pleaded guilty to mortgage fraud.

The convictions against Kolbe and his circle of associates involve the sale of 27 homes in both Sarasota and Manatee County from 1999-2002.

The group bought the properties and then began flipping them, often within days, to friends and family members for more than twice what they paid.

• Records show that participants in the scheme paid a total of $4.4 million and inflated the values to $9.8 million through sham transactions.
• They used inflated values to collect $7.4 million in Florida mortgages — a whopping $3 million more than the properties were worth.

In the process, the group submitted false Florida mortgage. The myriad acts of fraud committed by the crooks included providing bogus earnings statements, tax returns, bank statements and property appraisals.

Kolbe has declined comment, but throughout his civil and criminal defense, he never denied that he and his partners sold properties to each other and inflated values in order to get the home loans. In their indictments, prosecutors accuse Kolbe of being the group’s ringleader.

He orchestrated the fraud through a collection of real estate agencies and mortgage firms run in conjunction with two others, one of whom was a licensed real estate agent and a managing member of Lakewood Properties. That co-conspirator and bought most of the 27 properties in question, doling out $120,000-190,000 for each.

They were then sold to members of the scam for $300,000-400,000 each. Kolbe filled out bogus applications that included appraisals prepared by Preferred Appraisal Group, a sham company that operated by himself and his partners. Kolbe sent the Florida home loan documents to the lender, while a title insurance agent acted as the closing agent.