Broward County Man Sentenced in Separate Wire and Mortgage Fraud Conspiracies

Wifredo A. Ferrer, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida; John V. Gillies, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Miami Field Office; Jose A. Gonzalez, Special Agent in Charge, Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation Division (IRS-CID); Addy Villanueva, Special Agent in Charge, Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE); and Henry Gutierrez, Postal Inspector in Charge, United States Postal Inspection Service, announced today’s sentencing of defendant Manetirony Clervrain, also known as “Kevin Rusell,” of Broward County. U.S. District Judge James I. Cohn sentenced Clervrain to 108 months in prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release.

On July 22, 2011, Clervrain pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1349, and one count of conspiracy to commit wire and bank fraud, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1349, in connection with two separate fraudulent schemes. The first fraudulent scheme involved a scheme to defraud businesses and companies by obtaining lines of credit and purchasing goods and services under the assumed identity of victim companies and individuals. In the second scheme, Clervrain recruited “straw buyers” to purchase condominiums in the Club Caribe Project in Coconut Creek, Florida, and provided false financial information during the mortgage application process.

According to court documents, between December 2005 and February 2006, Clervrain and his co-conspirators defrauded Hewlett Packard, Xerox, Sears, Home Depot, and other companies by impersonating other victim companies and individuals to obtain lines of credit and goods and services from the retailers, resulting in losses of over $300,000.00. In addition, between February 2007 and June 2007, Clervrain and his co-conspirators in the mortgage fraud scheme purchased 25 units at the Club Caribe Project, using bank loans obtained through fraud. In sum, Clervrain and his co-conspirators obtained more than $5.7 million in fraudulent mortgage loans and diverted the proceeds for their personal use, with one of Clervrain’s companies collecting $50,000.00 as “contractor dues” and “assignment fees” at closing of each property.

Mr. Ferrer commended the investigative efforts of the FBI, the IRS, the FDLE, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, and the North Miami Beach Police Department. These cases were prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Elisa Castrolugo and Thomas P. Lanigan.

A copy of this press release may be found on the website of the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida at http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/fls. Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at http://www.flsd.uscourts.gov or on http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov.