Florida Home Loan Officer’s Maneuvers Raise Questions in Tampa

In late 2005, Barbara and Gregory Klein agreed to sell their St. Petersburg home for $535,000 to a man who had seen their “For Sale By Owner” sign.

But when the Kleins went to complete the deal, their copy of the closing statement showed a different buyer - and a sale price of $599,000.
In less than a year, the house changed hands twice, each time at a price $50,000 higher than the previous one despite the sluggish Tampa housing market.

All transactions involved Victor Clavizzao, a Florida home loan officer whose suspicious real estate deals and lengthy criminal record were the subject of a St. Petersburg Times story April 29.

After the story ran, the Kleins were among several readers who contacted the paper to share their experiences with Clavizzao.

“I didn’t like the way that closing went,” says Barbara Klein, a preschool teacher.

Experts say the recent housing market boom has been fueled in large part by questionable, even illegal practices - “straw” buyers, inflated appraisals, bogus sales prices and high turnover or “churning” of the same property.

As the boom quiets, Florida mortgage fraud is becoming more obvious.

“In a slowing market, it starts to show itself,” says Mark Scott of HomeBanc Mortgage Corp., one of the South’s biggest lenders.

“All of a sudden you’ve got this scam that’s been pushing up the value of some homes, but the rest of the market isn’t reflecting that any more.”

Inflated prices help borrowers to get more money out of Florida mortgages. But they can hurt the Florida mortgage lender, who is the one left holding the bag if the borrower defaults.

And they can mean higher property taxes for all homeowners in an area if assessments are based on artificially high sales prices.

“If there are enough of them, it would skew the value up and that’s something we’re always concerned with,” says Pinellas County Property Appraiser Jim Smith. “Garbage in, garbage out.”

The FBI confirmed last week that it has an ongoing mortgage fraud investigation in south Pinellas County and is looking at “several individuals.”

The agency would not say if it is investigating Clavizzao’s activities, but Monday it contacted at least one person mentioned in the Times story of the day before.

Though widespread, mortgage fraud can be hard to detect and harder to prove. It can involve real estate agents, appraisers, loan officers, Florida mortgage brokers and borrowers working in concert. And key documents like appraisals and closing statements are not part of the public record.

“You often see a lot of conspiracy with fraud, but what’s difficult about these cases is it’s a paper trail, ” says Corey Carlisle of the Mortgage Bankers Association, which represents real estate lenders.

“You have to follow the trail - where the money is going - and it can be very difficult for law enforcement.”

The Kleins say Victor Clavizzao contracted to buy their house for $535,000, but had trouble lining up the Florida mortgage financing.

At one point, he gave them what he said was a letter from Bank of America approving him for a Florida home loan.

The letter - which the bank says it didn’t issue - purportedly came from a Bank of America office at 5825 W Kennedy Blvd. in Tampa. That address would put the office on the Howard Frankland Bridge.

Clavizzao did not return calls seeking comment.

When the Kleins closed on the house in December 2005, they were surprised to see Peggy Lepzinski - not Clavizzao - listed as the borrower on the settlement papers.

The sales price was shown as $599,206, with the Kleins getting $535,000 and much of the extra designated for “Shea and Associates” with no explanation.

Lepzinski and her husband, Mark, are Clearwater real estate investors who have been involved in other deals with Clavizzao.

Shea & Associates - owned by one of the Lepzinskis’ neighbors - is a construction company that has done work on many of the couple’s properties.

Records show the Lepzinskis got a Florida mortgage on the house for $599,000, leaving them with tens of thousands of dollars of extra cash.

Mark Lepzinski said he planned to use the money to stucco the outside of the house, which Clavizzao and his girlfriend had moved into.

But Clavizzao stopped paying the rent, and Shea and Associates never did any work on the home, Lepzinski said. He said the money went to fix up other places he and his wife owned.

Banks and mortgage companies make loans based on the appraised value of a house. That means it is critical for the appraiser to fully document the home’s existing condition, as well as any proposed repairs, renovations or additions that could affect its value.

Otherwise, the Florida mortgage lender could be misled.

“An appraiser is required to have plans and specifications in the work file, and usually the lender will insist after the loan is closed that either the appraiser or a representative of the lender go out and verify the work,” said Francois Gregoire, a member of the Florida Real Estate Appraisal Board.

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