Florida Habitual Offender Gets 10 Years for Mortgage Fraud

North Lauderdale man gets additional sentence for failing to appear in court

July 10, 2007 -- TALLAHASSEE, FL – A Broward County, Florida man will spend 10 years in prison for charges stemming from an elaborate mortgage scheme, Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum today announced. Paul Small pled guilty to three counts of mortgage fraud in a case that involved fraudulent warranty deeds, falsified tax returns and bogus bank statements overstating his assets in a phony company. He was prosecuted by the Attorney General’s Office of Statewide Prosecution.

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In 2000, Small completed mortgage loan application forms in an attempt to purchase real estate in Palm Beach County. On the forms, he claimed to own property in Fort Lauderdale with a net worth of more than $1 million. He submitted fraudulent warranty deeds that supported his ownership claims, as well as three years’ worth of tax returns and financial statements showing that his phony corporation, KDP Investment Corporation, had millions of dollars in assets. To further purport the fraud, he submitted copies of bank statements for investment accounts with assets in excess of $850,000. The investigation, conducted by the Department of Financial Services in conjunction with the United States Postal Inspection Service, ultimately revealed that Small did not own any of these assets.

Small was charged with three counts of third-degree mortgage fraud and faced a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison. He was sentenced today to nearly three years in prison for the fraud charges, but will also serve a concurrent 10-year sentence for failing to appear at earlier court dates as a habitual offender.

Source: Florida Attorney General