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Man Pleads Guilty In Mortgage Fraud Conspiracy

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By SHANNON BEHNKEN

The Tampa Tribune

Published: August 14, 2008

TAMPA - The U.S. Attorney's Office has reached a plea agreement with a St. Petersburg man accused of participating in a complicated mortgage fraud scheme.

John Robert Miller, 62, agreed to plead guilty to charges that include wire fraud involving more than $1.1 million, according to the agreement filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Tampa.

Miller, president of American Mortgage Link, which originated mortgage loans, and Solutions Processing, worked with co-conspirators to charge some clients an extra mortgage brokerage fee, according to charges filed by the U.S. attorney's office. Both companies were based in Tampa.

The fee equaled one percentage point more than normally charged. Three-quarters of the additional point was deposited in an account in the name of the Solutions company, court documents say, and that money was then distributed to co-conspirators.

"John is an honorable man with a long history of integrity in this community," said Eduardo Suarez, Miller's attorney. "He was put in a bad situation and made a bad judgment call. Since then, he has done everything he can to atone for what he did, in terms of assisting in the investigation."

Clients obtained loans through Coast Bank of Bradenton. The bank, which was deeply troubled by real estate loans, agreed last year to be purchased by First Banks of St. Louis.

A co-conspirator, not named in court papers, was the executive vice president of the mortgage lending department at Coast Bank.

That conspirator used his position with Coast to demand that Miller charge the extra fee, court documents said.

Miller kept one-quarter of the fee charged on each loan for himself, and the co-conspirator used his portion of the money to buy real estate, jewelry, wine and to make charitable contributions to a church, among other things, according to court documents.

The conspirators put Coast Bank at risk of "suffering additional economic harm" if clients defaulted on loans, the documents said.

Miller faces a maximum prison sentence of five years and restitution.

U.S. Attorney spokesman Steve Cole said the investigation into the scheme and into the Coast Bank executive is ongoing.

Reporter Shannon Behnken can be reached at (813) 259-7804 or sbehnken@tampatrib.com.

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