Three South Floridians who targeted the Miami-Dade Haitian Community in a mail fraud land scheme have been indicted.
Daniel Stephen, 42, and Patricia DePons, 53, both of Miami Shores and Clotilde Jean, 43, of Miramar, who defrauded more than 1,000 people of approximately $10.6 million, were indicted last week.
Stephen, Jean and other employees of First Loan Solution made misrepresentations to the Miami-Dade Haitian community to induce them to purchase vacant land. Stephen and First Loan Solution indicated that they owned the land, but this was untrue.
According to the indictment, Stephen also indicated that First Loan Solution would hold the buyer’s deposits in escrow, but that did not happen. Authorities say that Stephen in fact, used those deposits for personal and business expenses.
Further, a title company was hired by Stephen to serve as closing agent and DePons had responsibility for its day-to-day affairs. The sale closings were administered by DePons who collected the remainder of funds from the buyers, along with the title company’s closing costs.
Authorities say that DePons issued worthless warranty deeds at closing in order to make the closings seem legitimate.
In the long run, the buyers received no land or refunds of the monies that they had paid to Stephen, Jean and DePons.
The three who ran this fradulent land scheme could face up to 20 years in prison on each count, if convicted.
