Home Tampa Press Releases 2010 Tampa Man Accused of Fraud Scheme Involving 400 Hundred Home Mortgages
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Tampa Man Accused of Fraud Scheme Involving 400 Hundred Home Mortgages

U.S. Attorney’s Office June 14, 2010
  • Middle District of Florida (813) 274-6000

TAMPA, FL—United States Attorney A. Brian Albritton announces the arrest of Joseph F. Daniele (age 39, of Tampa) on a criminal complaint for conspiracy and wire fraud affecting a financial institution. If convicted on these charges, Daniele faces a maximum penalty of 35 years in federal prison.

According to the criminal complaint, Daniele, while being sued in federal court in Ohio for mortgage fraud, engaged in a mortgage fraud conspiracy involving approximately four hundred homes in the Tampa Bay area. The conspirators recruited "investors" to buy properties that they already owned. The "investors" never provided any of the down payments for the properties (more accurately, the funds-to-close) as listed in the mortgage loan documents; instead the conspirators provided the down payments. The conspirators duped lenders into making loans on the properties for what the lenders believed to be, for example, was 80 percent of a properties’ value when, in reality, the loan covered 100 percent of the value.

A criminal complaint is merely a formal charging instrument stating that a defendant has committed a violation of the federal criminal laws, and every defendant is presumed innocent unless, and until, proven guilty.

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