TAMPA – A real estate developer and a loan officer pleaded guilty in a plot to lie to banks in connection with the sale of condominium units at a Temple Terrace complex, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida said.

Mordechai Boaziz, 68, of Fort Lauderdale, and Jonathan Marmol, 41, of Odessa, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to make false statements to financial institutions. Each faces a maximum penalty of five years in federal prison. A sentencing date has not been set.

According to their plea agreements, beginning around the summer of 2006 and continuing through August 2008, Boaziz and Marmol conspired with others to execute a scheme to influence the credit decisions of financial institutions in connection with the sale of condominium units at the Preserve at Temple Terrace, a 392-unit condominium complex. Boaziz was converting the Preserve from an apartment complex into a condominium complex and hired Marmol to market the units.

In order to recruit and entice otherwise unqualified buyers to purchase units at the Preserve, the conspirators offered to pay the prospective buyers’ down payments (“cash-to-close”). The conspirators then intentionally concealed from the financial institutions the cash-to-close payments made on behalf of the buyers.

In particular, the HUD-1 Settlement Statements submitted to the financial institutions falsely stated that the buyers brought their own cash-to-close funds to purchase the condominium units, which influenced the financial institutions’ mortgage loan approval decisions. In reality, Boaziz funded the buyers’ cash-to-close and routed the payments through Marmol and others.

As a result of the conspiracy, the financial institutions that financed the condominium unit purchases at the Preserve sustained a total loss of about $5 million.