Thaindian News

MIAMI, FLORIDA (BNO NEWS) – Daniel Stephen and Patricia De Pons pleaded guilty on Wednesday to conspiracy to commit mail fraud in connection with a vacant land scheme that defrauded more than 1,000 victims out of $10.6 million, prosecutors announced.

Daniel Stephen owned and operated a company named First Loan Solutions which was dedicated to the land sale in various counties of North Florida and Georgia. He advertised the sale of land to the Haitian community in the Miami Dade County using his website, his radio show on Haitian radio, and distributing flyers.

Stephen also organized trips to the land that his company claimed to own. In reality, Stephen lured victims into signing land sale contracts and making down-payment deposits. He told his customers that the money was deposited into escrow accounts. Meanwhile he failed to acquire the land he was already selling so he started to delay closing land sales by giving them false information about the status of the transactions.

Patricia De Pons, a member of a law firm, was hired by Stephen to serve as the closing and escrow agent between customers and First Loan Solutions. She presented the buyer with limited liability company (LLC) contracts for signature. She didn’t say that the buyers weren’t acquiring the land in their names but in the company’s name. She fraudulently represented the closings on the customers’ land. She even forged unrecorded warranty deeds.

The victims were left with no land and without their money refunded. In excess of 1,000 buyers fell prey to this scheme with losses to the victims of $10,600,000.