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.